Carson is One!

Happy Birthday, Carson!

We celebrated this little one a couple weeks ago. I will share all the pics soon. He loved the cake and the attention too! Carson, you are such a sweet little boy. You are so happy and laid back. You smile all the time. You enjoy everything you do, from eating to playing to taking a bath and even sleeping. We love taking care of you, including big brother, who loves you just like we do. We have loved watching you grow from a tiny baby into a healthy one year old and now we can't wait to watch you walk and talk and everything else that comes next. Happy birthday sweet baby boy!

One

It's Carson's birthday week! Carson, at one, you like playing in the bath tub, but not for long. You usually play for a few minutes and then stand up as if you are ready to get out. If you aren't ready when I reach for you, you will quickly sit back down and continue playing.

You are kind of a momma's boy, although you love to be with Daddy too. You are fine with anyone unless I walk by and then suddenly remember that you are a momma's boy.

You love to play with toys, but you love books the most. Your favorite books are Dear Zoo, How Big, and Peek A Who.

You are a great sleeper. We lay you down awake in your crib for a nap or bedtime and you almost always go right to sleep. Sometimes you play for a while, but you rarely cry. If you do, it's not for long. You nap for 1.5-3 hours once or twice a day. At night, you go to bed between 7-8pm and typically sleep until 6am, give or take a little. If you cry out in the night, you always get yourself back to sleep. We gave you a pillow this week and you love it.

You do not like the changing table at all. You are quite a challenge to dress and to change your diaper unless your diaper is poopy. In that case, you are cooperative b/c you do not like a poopy diaper for even one minute. If you are playing one minute and crying the next, we instantly know that your diaper is dirty.

You are becoming more coordinated walking around stuff and going from your feet to your bottom, but you are still a little ways from walking. I can tell you are going to love the freedom of walking. 

You are an excellent eater. The only food you haven't liked is avocados. You will eat everything else, chicken, hamburger, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, corn, and all fruit. Yesterday you ate an entire Jr Cheeseburger from Sonic. You haven't mastered a sippy cup yet. We still give you a jar of baby food before bed, but this week you are switching from formula to milk and baby food to all table food. 

You are such a happy and patient baby. Sometimes we lose track of the feeding and sleeping schedule b/c you don't remind us that it's time for either. We call you baby round face (b/c your face is round like daddy's), baby child, or a battering ram (b/c you lower your head and charge full steam ahead). Our word for you is sweet. You have the sweetest face and the sweetest disposition. You have brought the sweetest love and joy to our home. You are an absolute gift from the Lord and we all love every day with you.

Weekend Wrap Up

We spent all weekend at home with the exception of grocery shopping, a birthday party, and church. It was fabulous. Our major weekend project was landscaping. We have wanted to tackle it for a while, but put it off due to time and money. We kind of got a wild hair and next thing you know we were at Lowe's buying shrubs. That's how we roll. It's late and I'm starting a new work out class at 5am (wish me luck....what am I thinking??), so I'll just leave you with the pics.

Before...

During...

After...The first part of the house is the original house and the second part that comes off of the back is the addition. This part of the yard has always looked terrible and unfortunately, it's where all of our guests pull in. Darrin tilled up the whole yard and put down grass seed about a month ago. It's looking so much better. It's going to look even better as it continues to fill in.

We finally bought two hose racks too. One for this side of the house and one for the front. It looks so much better than the hoses laying on the ground.

I am so happy that I get to look at this as I pull into the garage as opposed to the patchy yard and no landscaping. We planted five hydrangeas. I have zero experience with them, but hopefully we can make them a pretty sight every summer.

Carson's Last Day at JCS

Carson will be going to a new daycare in a couple weeks. We had to say goodbye to JCS today. He can't start the new daycare until he turns one in two weeks, but we would have had to pay for a full month at JCS, so we are going to improvise with the grandparents' help. We had mostly pros over the last year and a just a couple cons. We loved the teachers and facilities. I know he was loved and well taken care of. Also, it was very close to mine and Darrin's offices, which was convenient and comforting to have him nearby. The major con was that I felt like it was run more like a school (they also have K-12) without the daycare in mind. The daycare/school was closed for spring break, fall break, teacher planning days, etc. And, sometimes I felt like the teachers were inconsistent in the afternoon b/c again, after the school closed at 3pm, it was treated like an after school program (which also costed more). Just two cons, and thankfully the most important things like health, love, and safety were all perfect.

The lead teacher, Ms. Kristen, sent an email with these sweet words that definitely made me tear up.

It is with a sad heart that I say goodbye to Carson this year. I will admit from the beginning he has been something special to all of us. I will miss his easygoing attitude and big smile.  We get a big kick out of how fast he wants to eat.  He has come so far during our time together.  I have also enjoyed getting to know your family and look forward to running into you as the years go by. 

She also sent a link to almost 300 pictures that she took of Carson's first year. I think that is amazing that she kept pictures for every child and organized them to send to each of us. Wow! She was so personable and easy to communicate with. The teachers were absolutely perfect. He had a bunch, but we loved Ms. Sarah...

Ms. Amanda...

...and Ms. June. I can't say enough about Ms. June. She was so kind and loving. She was so happy to see Carson every morning. She was on vacation this week, so we mailed her a note with this picture. We all will miss her.

I knew JCS wasn't a long term commitment for us, so I didn't let myself get too attached. It was still a little sad today b/c milestones like this with kids are always sad. Carson will start his new daycare, Presbyterian Day School (PDS), two weeks from Monday. I've heard great things about it. It sounds a lot like Miles' daycare, which was amazing. We wanted to get Carson into PDS b/c he will grow up with kids that he will eventually go to school with. It's also quite a bit cheaper and that doesn't hurt my feelings at all. So, while we hated saying goodbye to wonderful teachers at JCS, I am very excited about the future at PDS.

I'll leave you with a few pics from Carson's first year! From all the smiles, I'd say he had a pretty great year.

 

 

Less Words Wednesday

After a year of talking about it, we finally bought the supplies to try a big slip and slide for the hill in our backyard. Miles and his best friend, Mason, had fun playing on Sunday. I think it was fun, but didn't live up to the hype. Maybe with more friends, more soap, or rafts to slide on, it might be more fun. After 45 minutes, they said the water was cold and the grass at the end was scratching them so they went inside. We'll try again another day. There friendship sure is sweet though.

Randomness from Today

Carson was pretty inconsolable during the night. Usually not sleeping well = sickness. He hasn't really been sick, but over the last week he's had a bunch of unrelated symptoms. The only one that I couldn't explain away was hoarseness. Since he was so upset last night, I decided to take him to the doctor to be sure he didn't have strep or something. I thought it was unlikely, but I can be too laid back at times regarding sickness, so I thought we better at least call. The nurse thought I should bring him in for a quick look. He loved the monkey mural on the wall.

She said his throat was red, but that it looked viral as opposed to bacterial. From the looks of it, she said that it was probably hurting him. Hopefully he's on the end of it now since it's been around 5 days already. We left the doctor and picked up Miles on the way home. Then, it was pancakes and sausage for dinner. Everyone was excited about that. Miles and I both got the giggles at dinner. Lots of laughs were had. I was laugh-crying before it was all said and done. 

I am in the process of redoing Carson's high chair (which has gone terribly wrong...a story for another day b/c I am not happy about it at all) so he just roamed the floor while we ate. We reached down and gave him a bite every now and then :)

We did finally give him 2 jars of baby food b/c she said soft and cold would be best for his throat. We've been trying to get away from baby food, but clearly he still loves it. He gobbled it up.

Our long summer days have been fun. A little more chill and less structured. We have been glued to the College World Series for weeks. We let Miles fall asleep watching it on the coach. That's what summers are for, right?