Little Indian

Carter's class had a Thanksgiving feast today for lunch. We all signed up for and brought in food instead packing lunches for the kids.

We also had to bring in a pillow case so they could make this ...


When I picked Carter up, he was one of two kids still wearing his Indian costume. The teachers said he didn't want to take his off all day. The kids also make paper turkeys and had a parade where they walked around to other classrooms and sang songs. I really love his school!

Child Find Screening

A few weeks ago one of Carter's Parents' Day Out teachers recommended that we have Carter's speech evaluated through Child Find. She said that they were often having trouble understanding him and that he seemed to be getting frustrated sometimes.

Child Find is the program in Williamson County that identifies children that are having difficulties in hearing, vision, speech, language, social skills, thinking skills, moving and using muscles, and self help. It's run through the school system and is free for participants.

I have always thought that Carter may qualify for some speech therapy but we hadn't done anything yet because the program doesn't start until age 3 and requires a teacher's or pediatrician's recommendation.

Carter had his screening yesterday afternoon at an elementary school. I was a little nervous about Carter being shy or grumpy since the screening was during his naptime, but I told him we were going to a school to play some games and he was super excited. I brought Rylan along but luckily he was content playing with the toys in the classroom. There were three evaluators. One asked me questions mostly about Carter's social skills. The other two evaluators had Carter count objects, put things in groups, identify objects, and lots of other things that I didn't really get to observe since I was answering questions and trying to keep an eye on Rylan. At the initial screening, all areas of development are evaluated and then if anything is low, the child will get another evaluation in that area by a specialist.

Carter scored average or above on everything except for speech and language. He was still in the normal range for language but didn't get credit for a lot of things because of his speech. The evaluators recommended that Carter get a second, more thorough evaluation for speech. Their concerns were that he often deletes the middle and/or end consonants of words and that he sometimes substitutes an "h" sound in the middle of words. They also commented that some words and connected speech was unintelligible.

None of this was shocking to me. I know that he only says the first part of many words and that he can't say several sounds. Carter can't even really pronounce his name. It sounds more like "ca-gar". He gets really excited when a dj says Lady Gaga on the radio because he thinks they are saying his name! I felt like it took Carter longer than most of the other kids his age to start saying more than just a handful of words. His vocabulary has really exploded over the last several months but it's often difficult for people other than Brian and me to understand a lot of what he says.

I'm looking forward to having Carter's speech evaluated further and getting him some assistance if he qualifies.

Three-Year-Old Checkup

Carter had his three-year-old checkup yesterday.

He saw the same pediatrician that Rylan saw for his 15 month appointment. Again, I didn't love the doctor so we are going to try someone else in the same office. The pediatrician is really pushy about a few things (such as eating dinner together, even though that's not always possible with Brian's work schedule, and that Carter should already be potty trained) and I can deal with that. But the things that I was concerned with, such as Carter's speech, he brushed off. Basically he seemed to only be concerned with the few things he feels are important and not much else.

Otherwise, the checkup went fine. Nothing came up in the physical exam and Carter's measurements were:

• Weight: 31 lbs, 0 oz (50th percentile)
• Height: 36.5 inches (25th percentile)

For comparison, here were Carter's 2 year measurements:

• Weight: 25 lbs, 14 oz (25th percentile)
• Height: 33.5 inches (30th percentile)

Looks like Carter is getting a little chunky! Actually, his belly is a bit rounded but he's always been shaped that way. Even when he was in the 4th percentile for weight. No matter what though, we need to have a yard again so he can play outside more!

Carter wasn't looking forward to his appointment. He kept telling me he didn't want to get a checkup. I think he thought he had to get shots. Luckily he didn't need any! He did have a little fear of the pediatrician at first and whimpered a little but he got over it after a minute or so.

House Update

Losing Daylight Savings Time has made it really difficult to see the house during the week. It's almost completely dark by 5 pm and if I drive over there around 5 trying to catch the last bit of daylight, the workers are still there.

Tonight we stopped by around 6:30 pm with flashlights to see what we could see.

Our garage doors have been installed ...


All the bathrooms and the laundry room had been tiled ...


Bathroom counter tops had been installed ...


The shower in the guest bathroom had been installed but we couldn't see in the other two full baths because doors were closed and we couldn't open them because of either tape across the doorway or tile that hadn't set yet.

We went by on Sunday a couple of times to see what had been done last week. The first time we were there, the painters were there. But later in the afternoon, we were able to get into the house.

All the interior painting had been completed. I like the color we chose for the walls. It looks really similar to the color we picked for our last house.


The roll-outs in the base kitchen cabinets had been moved up. They left the half shelves in the cabinets and mounted the roll-outs above them. They removed the roll-outs from the bottom of the cabinets so there are holes now in them. Hopefully they come back through and fill in the holes so they look a little better.


Our front porch now has a ceiling, columns, and steps ...


The crawlspace got lined with plastic and all the piping was insulated ...


And we got gutters and downspouts installed ...


Brian had a voicemail from the builder today updating him on the schedule. The tile, showers, and countertops (including the granite in the kitchen) should be completed tomorrow. The HVAC, electrical, and plumbing trim will be installed on Thursday and Friday. And the first coat on the hardwood floors should be applied on Monday.

PDO Party

Carter's Parent's Day Out class celebrates the kids' birthdays and does a good job of making them feel special. Cooper's birthday was yesterday and Carter's is today so they celebrated together today.


The teacher's apparently had Carter try on his crown (that he got to take home) the other day because there was already a picture of him wearing it outside the classroom door this morning.


I brought cookies to Carter's class today for the kids to have during their snack time. I made sugar cookies (from scratch) and added frosting and sprinkles. I usually use the pre-made dough but it never holds the shape of the cookie cutters well once they are baked so I tried a recipe that is supposed to be "no spread". It worked well and the 3s actually look like 3s! The teachers also said they and the kids all loved the cookies. I'm not the best baker and this apartment oven stinks so I'm really happy they turned out okay!


Carter's class is preparing for Thanksgiving. Their project in class today was to make "Blessings Mix". It contains Bugles, pretzels, candy corn, nuts, raisins, M&Ms, and Hershey's Kisses. Carter wanted to eat his as soon as we got in the car. The first thing he ate was all the candy corn. He had to eat each color separately. He'd bite off the white, then move on to the orange, and finally the yellow. At least it lasted awhile that way!


There were a bunch of pictures and a couple of projects hanging on the wall outside the classroom door today along with the birthday stuff. I got a better look at what all the kids are thankful for (Daddy, a duck, stars, toys, God taking care of us, food, me, and snow). I guess Carter's answer of "food" was just as random as some of the other responses!


There was also a really cute class picture ...


Back Row (L to R): Sophie, Abigail, Sarah Kate, Carter, Maggie, Claire
Front Row (L to R): Caidin, Cooper, Evan, Logan

Carter's Birthday

We had Carter's birthday party on Saturday and I think he was a little confused on when his actually birthday is. When I went into his room this morning and told him "happy birthday", he asked something like "I'm 3 now?" in a really confused tone. Then he ran to find Brian and tell him that he's now 3.

We celebrated Carter's birthday this morning since the boys can be crazy/moody in the evenings and we never know when Brian will be getting home.

We had birthday pancakes to start the day. Please ignore my horrid singing in this video!

After breakfast, we let Carter open up his presents from us. He also had a few from Brian's parents and one from my mom.


The first few presents Carter wanted to have opened right after he ripped off the paper so he could play with them immediately. But then he just wanted to keep opening gifts without really even looking at what he got.

All of our presents to Carter were bought at the Target toy clearances in January and July ...




Carter had school today so we didn't do anything very exciting for his birthday. Rylan took an afternoon nap after I picked Carter up and then I fed the kids dinner before Brian got home. We had celebratory brownies and sang "Happy Birthday" to Carter one more time.



Carter likes cake and cookies but apparently not brownies. He took one little bite and then handed the brownie off to Brian. He ended up with a leftover cookie from his preschool celebration instead.

Happy Birthday

Our little man turned 3 today!

Fort Granger

We didn't have much going on yesterday so we took the kids over to the playground at Pinkerton Park and then walked around Fort Granger which is adjacent to the park.

Franklin is known for it's civil war history and Fort Granger is one of those important sites.


There were several maps and information boards around the fort ...


The fort is atop a hill with deep trenches remaining around the fort. All the leaves had already fallen off the trees but this spot is probably pretty when the leaves are changing colors or as a picnic spot in the summer.


These boys love their sticks ...


The trench around the fort was a neat walking trail ...



Carter enjoyed "sliding" down the hills to get down ...


"Come on, Rylan ..."


Daddy and the boys ...

Cooper's Party

One of the awesome things about Carter's PDO class is that they are all really close in age. All of Carter's classmates turn 3 between September and December. Four kids have birthdays between October 9th and 15th (Carter's birthday). This morning we went to a party for Cooper (or as Carter calls him, because he doesn't pronounce "C" well, Pooper).

The party was at Shipwrecked Playhouse. We hadn't been there yet, but it's a neat little place with a pirate ship and several play stations (including dress up, a kitchen, ball pit, and Legos).



Cooper's mom was nice enough to include siblings so Rylan got to come along. He very much wanted to be included with the big kids and really wanted to sit at the table and have cake as well. Luckily there was enough room which prevented a major meltdown (Rylan missed his morning nap to come to the party). Rylan was a little piggy and ate an entire piece of cake (more than most of the older kids).

The Playhouse was open for free play so it was a little crowded with other people there, but the kids didn't seem to notice and all had fun. Carter is still so independent and played by himself most of the time. However, most of the other kids did too. They are really just starting to play with one another occasionally.

Carter didn't spend much time on the ship, but I coaxed him up to get a quick picture ...


And of course Rylan had to follow ...


Carter preferred to hang out in this Lightning McQueen car ...


The boys had fun and are very worn out taking a good afternoon nap right now.

Boys in the Woods