Mental note

Wait till your children go to bed before bringing up the boxes of toys you want to go through to see what to sell at your garage sale.

Carson thought it was in wonderland with the millions of toys dumped on our living room floor. No wonder he didn't want to eat breakfast or go to bed. And of course now he's reclaimed a few of the toys and we'll see if he's forgotten about them by tomorrow morning or not.

Daycare

I think my caregiver and I have come to an agreement on care for the next year. I'll be sending Carson to daycare 5 days every 2 weeks. It's completely ideal for both Carson and myself. First and foremost, Carson loves daycare. He talks about his friends there all the time. It's like an 8 hour playdate. He loves his caregiver. She loves him. They do amazing crafts, singalongs, circle time, learning their numbers and letters and getting lots of outdoor time. I don't want him to give up his social time, and I know that being at home with a newborn I just wouldn't have the time to arrange constant playdates. Also, I remember between about 4 months and a year old, Carson was having a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. What to do with a toddler during that time? A few days a week, absolutely I will have things for us to do, but he'd probably rather be with his friends having way more fun. He'll be starting school (what, school??) when my maternity leave is done and I don't want to make sure he's completely prepared. And I think half of the time with his mom and half of the time at daycare is the best way to ensure he's ready. He'll be just little when he starts - only 3!

Also, it will give me time to dedicate to my new little boy. I remember the hours Carson and I would spend walking around in the stroller, just lying on our bed together, watching him sleep, spending my whole day trying to do whatever I could do to keep him smiling. I want those same times with just me and my new baby. Also, for the first month I remember I was just constantly feeding, changing, trying to sleep, cooking, cleaning etc.... where to fit entertaining your first born in there?

I KNOW that lots of moms do it and I KNOW that it's possible - but I think that our plan is just perfect for our family. I'll have lots of time with both my boys and then time with just my second-born knowing that Carson is happy!

Weekend visits

We had the whole family over tonight (our Ottawa family that is) to celebrate the May birthdays.  Guess who was dressed alike?  As Jeff said he didn't know if Carson looked like a 30  year old or if Uncle Sean looked like a two year old :)  Either way, they were a tres handsome couple!
Here are the kiddies enjoying their ice cream cake!

Growing up..

I remember when Carson was a baby and I'd see the twins getting in and out of their carseats themselves.  I would look at Carson and it seemed like it would be forever until he'd be doing the same.  And then it happened.

The thing with kids - is that all of this happens so quietly, you don't even realize as they start to do new things.  Ok, crawling, walking, talking - those type of things you tend to notice.  But it's at the age he is now that these new things are happening every day.  And it's not until you kind of stop and think about it and realize - hey, this is new.  He's never done this before.

And then of course, if you are me, you take pictures and video tape it.

32-33 weeks

Here's the belly shot!
And here's my handsome little devil!

Fun!

On Victoria Day we went to a fair with Auntie Carrie, Uncle Rob, Ethan and Isabelle.   It was the first time he's been to one this year and he had a blast.

Here he is waiting in line for his first ride:


Waiting for the ride to start!

On the train ride with Daddy (it's now three days later and he's still talking about the train ride)

Taking in the scene

Getting ready to feed the animals (no surprise he chickened out when the goats came too close)

On the merry go round with Mom!

Chasing Isabelle


Enjoying ice cream with his cousins.  First time with his OWN ice cream!  Perfect way to end a great day.

Yum!!

See how little he is?

New room!

We finally moved Carson over to his new room! He was quite excited to say the least. He calls it his new car room. I'll have to take some more pictures of it, but here's two in his new bed (and I'll be sneaking in shortly to take pictures of him sleeping).

He's gone from a little toddler bed to a queen sized bed, you should see how little he looks in it!

30 and 31 week belly shots

The only problem with

Carson loving his cousins so much is it makes it so hard to leave their house!  We went over for supper and Carson played non-stop with his cousins.  it's so much fun now, we can be inside the house and the kids are all outside playing with whatever.  Uncle Rob made a fort they were playing in, Isabelle and Ethan can help him in and out of the trampoline and carry his big wheel from the bottom of the hill to the top.  He loves eating wth them, following them around and doing everything they do.

But when it's time to leave, he loses it.  He hates leaving them.  I give him like 5 warnings that we are leaving.  So finally I have to bite the bullet and just get him to go.  He begs to stay, he cries, he pulls away and tries everything in his power to get me to let him stay  It would be cute if it wasn't so not cute. 

Love Love Love

The first thing Carson asks to do when he wakes up is to go outside. Dare I say parenting is so much easier in the nice weather, where you can just spend the whole day outside doing tons of different things or doing nothing at all.

Yesterday morning we made caramel apples, played on the big wheels, scooters, the trampoline, we went to Grandma's trailer and threw sticks, rocks, walked in the rain, splashed in puddles, chased tractors and watched leaves burn.

I love re-capping our day at night with Carson before he goes to bed, we talk about everyone we saw and everything we did.  He gets so excited remembering all the fun we had.