New Park

We tried out a new park today.

I had to go run an errand off Watt Rd so I decided to stop by Major Bob Leonard Park with the boys. Rylan slept in the shade while Carter and I played for about an hour.

I've played soccer at this park several times so I knew there was a playground, but I wasn't sure how great it was. There are some swings and one big play structure. Carter's still a little small for the playground, but everything is on super-soft, rubberized ground that makes falls much less scary.


There were only a few other kids there, but Carter still copied what they were doing ...


When we first got to the park and I was getting Rylan set up, Carter got half way up this before I got to him to help him. After a few tries he had it figured out and I was only there to catch him if he fell.




Sweaty and red-cheeked ...


When we got home, I got out Carter's finger paints. These are the Crayola Color Wonder paints and paper (we also have the markers). I really like these because they only show up on the special paper. Carter still has a short attention span so we never go through more than one piece of paper a day (the paper isn't very cheap).



Carter's vocabulary is growing every day now. One thing he does though is instead of calling an animal by it's name (such as cow), he just makes the sound it makes (he even started calling dogs "woof woofs" today). He also does this for car (he calls it a "go").

Carter has trouble differentiating between cows and horses. We usually see horses, not cows, when driving. When Carter sees one, he'll say "moo". I'll tell him it's actually a horse, and then he'll say "neigh".

Playmat

Brian's co-workers gave us a $100 Target gift card recently as a gift for Rylan. So today I got him a playmat. We never got one for Carter because he was never content laying on the floor or looking at his mobile like Rylan is.

So far Rylan seems to like his present ...

The Weekend

We didn't do anything too exciting this weekend, but we definitely stayed busy.

Yesterday morning we got tires for my car (finally - we've been needing to get new tires for a couple of months now) and had Carter's hair cut.

This was Carter's third time getting a haircut. We went to the same place but had another new person cut Carter's hair. This time a man cut his hair (I didn't catch his name). The barber did a great job interacting with Carter and gave him a good haircut. Carter sat in the chair with a booster all by himself. Right away the barber got Carter some toys to play with and got him to give him "five".

Carter did a good job this time. There was no freaking out like last time. Occasionally he pulled away a little from the barber, but he generally stayed still. Carter's hair looks so much better now!

After Carter's morning nap, we went to Fuddrucker's for lunch and then shopping for Brian for some new soccer stuff. I decided to sit out this season and finally give Brian a chance to play. My old team is splitting into two teams this fall so they could finally use some new guys (we're normally hurting for girls but have more than enough guys on the team).

I'm excited to bring the kids to the games and have them watch Brian play. It's probably going to be a challenge to keep Carter off the field but hopefully he'll understand after a little explaining. Most of the fields have paved trails around the fields so I'm planning on taking the boys running in the jogging stroller for part of each game so I don't have to chase after Carter the entire time.

After some playtime, another nap for Carter, some yard work done by Brian, and dinner, we all went to the pool last night. Rylan slept most of the time there so both Brian and I were able to get in with Carter. Unfortunately after about 45 minutes it started thundering and we had to leave. We had a lot of fun while we were there though. I'm sad that the pool will be closing in a couple of weeks.

After the pool, we made a quick run over to Babies 'R Us to pick up some diapers after I realized that their sale on Pampers was only through Saturday and then we put Carter to bed. After Carter was asleep, I was holding Rylan as we watched a little TV. Rylan had been asleep for about 15 minutes when he started laughing in his sleep. He's been smiling at us for a few weeks but this was the first time he's laughed. It was a big, long belly laugh. He even woke himself up! It was super, super cute!


Today was a little more laid back.

I took the boys running when we got up. I added a mile to my run so we're up to 3.3 miles now. We spent the rest of the morning playing inside and getting in a morning nap for Carter.

After lunch Brian cut the grass and I took Carter outside to play. Rylan chilled out in his bouncer in the shade of the garage with the fan on him, as usual. I wasn't planning on getting out any water toys, but it got hot so I ended up pulling out the water table. I put a swim diaper on Carter but no trunks. These are the cute/funny pictures I ended up with:




After Carter's afternoon nap we went out for a quick dinner and trip to Target. By the time we got home, it was time to give Carter a bath and get him to bed.

Hopefully next weekend will be even more fun. We're planning on going to "Touch-a-Truck" at the zoo next weekend. Hopefully Carter will enjoy seeing and climbing on all types of trucks!

Pretend

Carter is starting to play "pretend".

He's played with his Little People and Playmobil people and animals for a long time, but he's usually just putting them all in the barn or lining them up. He'll make the sound one of the animals makes and make it hop around. He'll push cars around and make sounds and run them down ramps.

But yesterday Carter started playing with his toys a little differently. He kept putting a little dog down on it's side and made snoring sounds. Then today he put a Cheerio up to the dogs mouth and a grape up to a persons mouth and made smacking noises. It just seems like now he's pretending that his toys can do things that he does.

It was a cooler, overcast morning so I took the boys to the splash pad when it opened. There were only a couple of other people there when we got there and it never got very crowded. Plus, school started this week in our county so there weren't any big kids to watch out for.

Carter enjoyed it for awhile but then became obsessed with eating. The kids at the table next to us were getting a snack and Carter kept saying "eat, eat, eat" and getting upset. I had one little snack with us that I gave him, but it wasn't enough. Carter had just had a whole cup of Cheerios before we left the house so I didn't bring much with us. We stayed about an hour but I never could get Carter to play for very long after he got his mind set on eating.

Here's a picture of Carter from yesterday afternoon and one from our run this morning. Notice anything in common?



Carter is obsessed with these rainboots. Brian's parents bought them for Carter a long time ago and his feet are finally big enough for them. I pulled them out of his closet yesterday and he wants to wear them all the time. This morning Carter was looking for them first thing after I got him out of his crib.

Carter tells Rylan hi and bye all the time. He always says, "Hi, Baby" or "Bye, Baby". Carter also loves to tell random people, animals, and objects (like airplanes) hi and bye. He's been getting a little confused lately though. Yesterday while saying bye to the garbage truck, he said, "Bye. Bye. Bye, Baby. Bye." I guess he's just used to attaching "Baby" to hi and bye!

Cutie

Animal Sounds

Here is a video of Carter showing off some of the animal sounds he knows (he also knows a sheep - I forgot to ask that one) ...

Keeping Busy

I've been trying to keep Carter active and out of the house as much as possible. If we stay home all day, Carter and I both go a little crazy. He usually ends up misbehaving more because he gets bored and I end up letting him watch too many cartoons because I'll need a break from all the screaming.

It's been hard though now that Sarah and Mary Grace are in Kentucky. And even harder now that Amy just had baby Alek. Carter needs friends because it's harder for me to give him all my attention and play with him when I often have to do something for Rylan. And it's still so hot so I don't like having Rylan out in the heat for too long. I can't wait for it to cool off a little so we can do things like go to the zoo again.

But I've been doing what I can. Here's a list of our outings / playdates the last week:

• Wednesday - Baby Bookworms at the library
• Thursday - Played in the driveway with water toys for a couple of hours
• Friday - Playdate at neighbors house with seven other kids
• Saturday - Creative Discovery Museum
• Sunday - Pool before bed
• Monday - Nothing :(
• Tuesday - Playdate with Mary Grace (Sarah and Mary Grace were in town for a couple days)

So, even though I feel like I'm not doing anything for Carter, after listing everything out, it doesn't seem too bad.

Carter did really well at the neighborhood playdate last Friday. I had never met any of the other moms before, but everyone was nice and easy to talk to. Carter wasn't shy but also behaved (no taking away toys from other kids or screaming or hitting because something got taken from him). Hopefully some of us will get together again.

Sunday was the first time I'd been to the pool since Rylan was born. It was so nice! I've missed going so much. Carter and I were going 3 or 4 times a week when I was pregnant. I think Brian took Carter twice right after Rylan was born, but he hadn't been in at least a month. I was worried that Carter may have forgotten what he'd learned so far this summer, but he hadn't. He wasn't scared of anything and had lots of fun. Rylan slept in his carseat in the shade with a fan on him so I was able to hang out in the pool with Brian and Carter the whole time we were there (about 45 minutes).

7 Weeks Old

Rylan is 7 weeks old today.


He is still growing like crazy. He can barely fit into his 3 month rompers - they are difficult to snap. He's been wearing 6 month sized onesies for a couple of weeks because he completely grew out of the 3 month sized ones.

Rylan should be wearing size 2 diapers but I had bought a jumbo box of size 1 diapers and don't want to waste them so I'm still using them even though they barely close around Rylan's waist.

I got on the scale with and without Rylan this weekend and the difference was 14 pounds. I put Carter on the scale and he's only 25 pounds. Carter was 13 lbs, 13 oz at his 4 month appointment. I'm really curious to get Rylan's official measurements in 2 weeks when he has his 2 month appointment. It's amazing how different he is from Carter.

Rylan is getting pretty good head control. You still have to be prepared for him to flop his head back if you're holding him upright, but he doesn't do it that often. He can lift his head up for a long time while on his tummy too.

Rylan is smiling more and more. He's definitely smiling in response to us now. If I get close to his face when he's calm and lying down and smile and talk sweet to him, I can usually get Rylan to smile at me.

Hair and Pacis

Rylan is still working on losing the last of his dark hair. He currently has a strip at the base of his skull that doesn't want to rub off.

Carter pointing out the baby's hair to me ...


At least from the front Rylan doesn't look as silly anymore!

He has light colored peach fuzz all over his head now. The hair looks blonde but Carter was the same way when he was a newborn so we'll see what color it is when it starts growing out.

Rylan hasn't been a big fan of the paci so far. We haven't even tried to give it to him for 2 or 3 weeks. When we would give it to him, he would scream harder for a few minutes but would eventually start sucking on it and calm down. But he couldn't keep it in on his own and would lose it after a minute or two if we didn't hold it in.

We've pretty much decided to try to avoid giving Rylan a paci at all anymore. Carter is still using his for naps, at night, and in the car. We'd love for him to not use it at all, but I'm not ready to force him to give it up right now. I need the sleep I'm getting and know Carter would be up a lot for a few nights at least if we were to take the paci away. And I like my few minutes of peace that I get while driving. Rylan usually sleeps while I'm driving and Carter will be content with his paci.

I'm going to set a goal of having Carter give up his paci by his second birthday. Hopefully I'll be strong enough to stick to my goal!

Creative Discovery Museum

We drove down to Chattanooga today to go to the Creative Discovery Museum. It's a children's museum that is located downtown near the riverfront. We got out of the house at 9:20 am and it took about an hour and a half to get to the museum. We all went running this morning which gave us the later start. I've run 4 of the last 5 days. I've run the same 2.15 mile route each morning and have improved my time each day (I was almost 2 minutes faster today than I was on Tuesday).

I was really impressed by the museum. Most of the children's or science museums we've taken Carter to are either old and run down or geared toward older kids. This one had plenty of stuff for Carter to play with. The only negative was that they had a little too much squished into a relatively small building. Luckily, even though it was crowded since it was Saturday, it wasn't as bad as I expected and Carter didn't get run down too many times. He was generally able to play with what he wanted when he wanted.

When we got to the museum, a firetruck had just arrived at the entrance for kids to look at. Even though Carter loves firetrucks, he did not want to sit in the truck. He wanted Brian to get him back out right away. He had just gotten up from a nap so I'm going to blame his behavior on that.


Carter was very happy about the Chattanooga Fire Department sticker that he got. He kept pointing to it all day.


"Ooooooo, water ..."


There was a cool multilevel play area to explore ...



Going fishing ...



After getting a little damp while playing with the water again, Carter got to wear one of the cool smocks ...


"I know I need a haircut, but Mom thought this would be more fun. I'll get one next Saturday!"


There was a giant sandbox where you can dig for dinosaur fossils. Carter found an unoccupied corner ...



Carter liked the musical instruments ...


Especially this player piano that also included several other instruments connected to it ...

And of course he loved the trains ...


And the "go-go" (or car) ...


But what could make Carter stand like this for minutes with a look of awe on his face?


This guy!


The Grossology exhibit was at the museum right now. It was interesting. And gross. Especially the smells exhibit.

Cute kid in a tree ...


Carter loved counting this dinosaur's toes over and over again. (He can't really count yet but he'll point to each thing he's counting and say "two" over and over again.)


We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the museum. We had a small lunch (more of a snack) in the cafe (which was very reasonably priced). But after the museum, Brian and I were really hungry so we ordered lunch to go from Cheeburger Cheeburger. They have the best hamburgers and onion rings. You can choose from 50 different toppings for your burgers (including weird things like peanut butter). Even though it was 3 pm, there was still a wait for a table. Because it was Carter's nap time and we didn't think both kids would make it through a meal in a restaurant, we ate in the car while Rylan slept and Carter had a snack.

After our lunch, we drove back to Knoxville. We had a lot of fun today and I'm glad Carter got a day out of the house. I've been struggling to find new things to do since it's still so hot and there aren't a whole lot of indoor activities for Carter around here.

And congratulations to Amy and Chad who welcomed baby Alek this morning (and Caitlyn who is now a big sister)! He arrived a little earlier than expected but we've heard he and Amy are healthy and doing well. We can't wait to meet him!