Random

I love his voice

Carson's quite the little talker these days. And everything he says makes me laugh.

We've been spending hours a day at the park and his favourite saying is "Look at me mommy" "Look at me mommy"

I have to say, my heart gets that much bigger every time I hear the word mommy. He says it a million times a day for the past year and it still gets me every time.

I love long weekends!

So much so, that I need a vacation to recuperate from my holiday!

Saturday morning we got up and went to visit Auntie Alexis, Uncle Dino, Grant and Maya. ZiaNadia, Uncle Sean and Sofia were there too. Along with the rest of the neighbourhood (5 other kids who were the same age as Carson). So we played in their backyard - Carson was particularly in love with the huge tree fort (2 level, each floor probably 8*8 with a deck, windows - the whole 9 yards) and the trampoline. If I had a bigger backyard, we would definitely be buying one of these. He played in there with Maya forever - what a great workout. Then we went inside for lunch. I have to say I am rather proud of his eating habits. He was the only one to sit down and eat his whole lunch without getting up from the table!

He was sleep probably 2 minutes after we got in the car to go home.

Saturday after his nap we went to Julie and Tim's for the afternoon and a delicious supper. He's quite shy for the first little while when we get together with all the kids, but then he warms up and is just part of the gang. My favourite part is when he was cooking and Maisie was doing the dishes. So frigging cute.

Sunday morning was his Easter egg hunt!! I had these little feet sticker things that led him to all the hiding spots. There were little eggs, a few Kinder surprises and cars stuffed in eggs! He put all the kinder eggs back in their hiding spots, he didn't care for them too much. Since then, every morning when he wakes up he runs to the stairs asking if the easter bunny hid more treats. Later on that morning we went to Grandma's because Jeff was painting the basement. We found a few more eggs and then headed to the park. After lunch and his nap, we headed home and hit up the park again and then had Tacos on Easter Sunday. DELICIOUS. (Carrie and Rob and the kids were away, so we decided to have Easter dinner next weekend).

Monday morning we went for brunch at Nad and Sean's. Sofia and Carson play SO well together. At one point Carson was singing Sofia's name and she just had her head in her hands watching him. They imitate each other, run after each other, chase the cats and get into all kinds of trouble. I love that we had our kids together! After his nap we visited with Lisa and then went out to get a bite to eat.

It was such a busy weekend that I think I'm more tired today then I was Friday morning :)

Still laughing..

I just asked Carson who loves you (meaning ME) and he got this huge smile on his face and said....

Jesus.

I just about died laughing.

First day of the long weekend

And already it feels like we've done everything we do in a normal weekend!

This morning we went with Sofia, ZiaNadia and Uncle Sean for a walk on a nature trail at this wild bird conservatory.  The kids had a great time with the leaves, the puddles, the logs, the sticks, and most of all.... each other.

Then we came home, the fresh air made us all sleepy so we napped (I think *I* napped the longest!) then we helped Daddy rake (ok, they raked, I watched) and Carson and I headed across the street to the park while Daddy sanded the patches in the wall in the basement to get ready to paint.  At the park, we ran into Carson's girlfriends from daycare (two sisters, Molly and Anna)- it was pretty cute to see him and Molly interact, he just followed her around and did whatever she did.  We got down and dirty in the sand and headed home to get cleaned up and make some supper.   When we got home we found out that the whole gang (Kate, LJ, Myles, Kaethe, Peter, Jaeda, Justen, Julie, Tim, Grace and Maisie, whew) were headed out to dinner so who are we to say no?  We had a great time at dinner, Carson was enthralled with baby Myles and was even happy and excited when I was holding him.  Then we all took a little walk after dinner.  What a perfect day.  Too bad I didn't have my camera out after the bird place this morning...

Tomorrow is Julie and Tim's in the afternoon, Sunday is the easter egg hunt, church, brunch with the family (at least those who didn't leave for the weekend) and then who knows about the rest of the time.  I'm sure things will pop up, that's what happens in our lives constantly.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Favourite picture

We have pictures of all our family all over our fridge.  Especially those family members who don't live here in Ottawa so when we do see them he will recognize them.  We are constantly pointing out everyone and telling him their names.  Ever since Grammy and Grampy left he's been talking about them constantly.  He's become quite attached to them and lately he's been rather obsessed with one picture in particular and he brings it everywhere with him.....here he is talking about it.

Cozy cozy

I bought Carson a new pair of jogging type pants from Joe Fresh the other day and he's obsessed with them. They are for the summer so they are a lighter material and straight legged. I had him try them on when I got home to make sure I got the right size (size 2) and he didn't take them off for 48 hours. He wore them to bed, he wore them the next day and didn't want to take them off. Best $8 ever spent.  

So every night when he gets home from daycare he wants to put them on.  Then he does his cozy pant dance.  Can you blame him?  Jeff and I do the same thing!  Well, minus the dance.  Here he is showing them off:

He's also decided that he loves his Diego hat that his Auntie Norma gave him last summer:  This is how he puts it on.

Ever since Carson was a baby he used to lie on the floor so he could see his cars/trucks/tractors move at eye level.  Doesn't even stop him outside in the cold and wet!

Last night, as always, I went to check on him before I went to bed. I couldn't open the door. I finally squeaked it open a bit and all I see are two little feet. 

He fell asleep right in front of the door. We have a monitor on after he goes to bed so I know it's not like he was trying to get out calling for us and finally fell asleep out of exhaustion, he must have just wandered up and fallen asleep there. Which is really funny because I always see pictures of other kids falling asleep in random places - which Carson never has done. Until last night. I snuck in and stole a few pictures (after i managed to push him far enough away from the door to squeeze in which is harder now then it would have been without a pregnant belly).

We knew it would happen one day

This morning at 7 am I hear bang bang bang bang on his bedroom door. Now, is it so wrong for me to love that he can't open doors yet?

Love

The way Carson says crocodile tears. I have to get it on video. Last night I thought he was saying "I go downstairs" and it was right before bed so i was thinking to myself - like heck you are. But then he climbed into bed with a book and seconds later I realized it was his Crocodile Tears book and then he said mommy read crocodile tears. Although when he asks me to read it, he doesn't really want me to. He's very into reading books himself these days. It's hilarious. He flips through the pages and says a few random words from the page (no, I'm not trying to say he's reading, I know it's from memory). Anyways, all that to say I love the way he says crocodile tears.

Gammy Gampy

Are here!

I worked a little late so Jeff went to pick Carson up from daycare and brought Grammy and Grampy with him. Apparently Carson refused to get in the car with them and especially without me. So Jeff sat him on his lap and Grampy drove home. We only live about 500 m from their house so it wasn't a big deal. By the time I got home 10 minutes later he was happy as heck with them. It may have helped they brought him a John Deere truck (when we peeked on him before we went to bed he was holding the two trucks and snuggled right into them). As the night went on he loved them even more and more.

This morning when I went to get him the first thing he told me was that Gampy gave him his trucks (Grampy seems to be getting all the credit) and then asked where Grammy was. He was having such a fun time with them this morning (especially reading the flyers with Grampy) that he put up quite the stink to go to daycare. I had snuck out so he wouldn't have a meltdown when I left, but when I talked to Jeff later Carson was NOT happy to go to care. I talked to my caregiver later on though and he was having a grand old time and even sharing his new trucks.

We were all going to take the day off together, but something came up at work (boo!) and so Grammy and Grampy are getting their passports today, doing some running around and we'll take Monday or Tuesday off before they leave!

Yikes

The term "mommy's little boy" sums up the way things are going in our world right now.

And it's hard. It's hard on both of us. This morning, he was screaming because he didn't want me to go. Two nights ago when Jeff put him to sleep he cried for 30 minutes because he wanted his mommy.

Everything these days is "mommy do it. No daddy do it". If it's just the two of them (without me in the house) things are fine, but if Carson knows I'm around he just wants me. It's going on longer and longer now and it's beginning to wear us down.

It's hard on me because I feel guilty leaving and feel I should be doing everything. It's hard on Jeff because the first 5-10 minutes of trying to do anything with Carson he has to get him to stop crying for me. It's just not fun.

Ooohhhh I love it!

The beautiful beautiful weather that is. Ok, so it's not summer, but I think it's even better. It's the first REAL nice day since the winter. It went up to 10 degrees this morning. We met Zia Nadia, Uncle Sean, Sofia, Auntie Carrie, Uncle Rob, Ethan and Isabelle (and their friends) for breakfast at the sugar bush. Then we played for a couple of hours before heading home. It was spectacular.

Sofia pushing Carson in the bulldozer

Ethan and Isabelle on the horse wagon ride

Carson and Daddy petting the horses (or, Carson watching Daddy pet the horses)

Ethan, Carson and me! Carson was very into telling everyone that I was HIS mom not THEIR mom

Carson going down the slide (what you didn't see is me missing to catch him because I was too busy taking pictures to he landed on the bumpy ice ground, he wasn't too happy about that)

Carson on the "mighty machine" as he was calling it. The first time he didn't last too long on it, but apparently when Daddy took him back later on he loved it more.

Sofia and Sean

Carson and Daddy

Sofia not wanting to have her picture taken

Carson at home reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar and telling me the sausage was actually the pickle, and was quite adamant about it.

Grammy and Grampy are coming this week and we are all so excited! Hopefully this beautiful weather can keep up so we can spend the next couple weeks outside. We are loving this weather.

Not sure what to do about my blog...

Up till now, this blog has been 100% Carson.

Now - do I start a new blog for baby two? Do I try to keep two up and going? With two kids? I doubt that's going to happen. I suppose it's normal for the second child to never have anything that is completely theirs so maybe I can talk about both kids on this? Sorry baby two.

Anyways, this pregnancy is fabulous compared to my first one. And this baby moves INSANE amounts compared to Carson. It makes me worried for the type of child he's going to be :)

I'll get Jeff to post a picture of me soon, I just need to face the camera (not the easiest thing for me to do when I'm GAINING weight), but I will. Our last appointment the baby was measuring perfectly and my doctor said I was one of his easiest patients. Still trying to decide on a vbac versus another section - I think I'm coming closer to a decision, but I don't want to hear other people's opinion (unless I ask, I've spoken to some very reliable people who I trust) and I think I'm coming around now. Anyways, you'll know once it's done (hehe I'll probably let it spill beforehand).

I have to stop googling all kinds of cute baby boy things, I never got to prepare beforehand because even though I knew Carson was a boy, it wasn't actually confirmed so I had to wait until he was born, but now that I KNOW he's a boy - ooohhh the damage I can do!

Oh, and in regards to that... I'm not sure which way I enjoyed more, knowing or not knowing. I think if/when there is a third, I will keep it as a surprise again. Anyways, the pregnancy-tired stage has set in, so it's almost bed time for me.

Annnddddd

Carson is going to have a little brother!!!

Getting anxious for spring

I'm at home today with Carson, who has a fever of 101. Nothing too high, but hot enough to keep him home. His mood doesn't seem to be any different so I'm thinking maybe it's just teething (honestly I thought that would be done at 27 months! but he' sstill waiting for his last two molars).

We've been keeping ourselves busy, mostly playing with Sofia, Ethan and Isabelle, as it seems all his other friends are sick.

Here's Sofia trying to kiss Carson..

At an indoor playground...

This is how Carson sleeps at night. He has to sleep completely on his pillow, I guess my plan to get rid of the body pillow and replacign it with a regular one isn't going to happen anytime soon.

And just a close up of my beautiful little boy.

We have our next ultrasound on Wednesday and I'll happily report back whether Carson will be expecting a little sister or brother. If anyone remembers, we didn't find out if Carson was a boy or girl, so this is new to us. I think part of it is that I was convinced that Carson was a boy the whole time I was pregnant so I didn't need for someone to confirm my feelings. This time around I haven't a clue what I'm carrying and I'm anxious to know. Hopefully number two will cooperate and not be coy.

My first dream

That we were having a boy! We'll see how accurate my nighttime conscience is - with Carson I had 6 or 7 dreams that we were having a boy... and we did.

Last weekend Jeff, Carson and I took a trip to Toronto and Brantford. We stopped in at the zoo on the way down and the continued onto Brantford. My grammie was staying with my aunt and uncle in Brantford so we decided to go for a visit. We had a wonderful weekend visiting, playing, shopping, walking, running - you name it, we did it. Here are some pictures.

Gram-Grammie with all her great grandchildren:

The cousins making ramps for Carson's car out of the tablecloth

Carson getting to know Uncle Ellery:

Carson and mommy at the zoo:
Daddy and Carson checking out the frogs:

What?

So tonight I have a million things to do before tomorrow, so while making dinner I asked Carson if he wanted to watch some Thomas. He looked at me and said no, Dora. What? How do you know about Dora? Honestly. We've been out visiting the past couple weeks, but never has the TV been on. There's no TV at daycare, so where the heck did he pick that up?

Then when I turned on TreeHouse there was a preview for a Barney show and Carson exclaimed Barney! Again - what? How do you know who that is?

Pictures!

Carson stealing Daddy's mango

Daddy and Carson playing around

Mommy and Carson making funny faces for the camera

Carson's new tractor shirt I bought him in Toronto - when I showed it to him when I got home he immediately started taking off the shirt he was wearing. It was a bit of an arguement to get him into his jammies and as soon as I started to get him dressed this morning, he cried cause he wanted his tractor shirt on. I hadn't washed it yet so I had to put on another shirt underneath and he screamed bloody murder until he figured out what I was doing! I thought I wouldn't have the problem of fighting over what he wears cause he's a boy and I thought that was only supposed to happen with girls... guess I was wrong.

No more cookies at night!

Tonight Carson had a chocolate chip cookie for dessert and he's WIRED! He went to bed at the normal time but I can hear him talking, singing, spelling words from his books, counting (and when I walked by his room he was lying back on his pillow reading "Guess How Much I Love You" with his legs crossed. That kid is too much. An hour later he started crying for Mommy, so Jeff went up and read him a few books and hopefully that's it.

My little shadow

This past few days, I've had a 3 foot shadow follow me where ever I went. And I mean everywhere.

Carson and I were both sick all weekend, although he's a much better patient than I am. No matter how sick he is, he's always happy and smiling, still sleeps like a baby and for the majority eats like normal. The only thing that changes is he turns into a mommy-suck. Even more so than usual.

If we were playing in the living room and I went into the kitchen to, say, get a glass of water. He'd pick up his cars or trucks and say - let's go into the kitchen. Then he'd have a chair pulled up beside me within a matter of minutes. We were downstairs playing with his train table, I left him and his Daddy downstairs and went up to do a few dishes and within minutes he'd come upstairs, pulled up a chair and said Carson help mommy.

It was super sweet, he had to be beside every minute he was awake. I probably wouldn't be using the word sweet if it had lasted longer but ... it didn't :)

Why didn't Carson tell me

that he loves eating frozen peas?

And I'm testing out all potential baby names on Carson. I love the way he says his potential brother or sister's name. I can see the benefit of finding out the sex of the baby to prepare Carson for his or her arrival, but the selfish part of me would like it to be a surprise. I really think our decision will be made the day of the ultrasound (sorry Nadia!)

Saturday night!

Giggle

Is it wrong of me to love the fact that Carson doesn't know he can get out of his bed while we aren't in the room?

He always waits until we are in the room in the morning before he gets out.

Just as I thought

As Carson is the perfect child, he slept right through the night till 7am this morning (well, not sure what time he woke up, but that's when we went in to get him) and he was sitting up on the edge of the bed with a huge smile and starting talking about his new car bed immediately.

**I know everyone parent has the perfect child, but it's my blog so I can talk about my son like that!**

I should have known....

That it would be easy. We just kept talking to him about his new bed, so by the time it was bed time adn we asked him where he wanted to sleep he said in his new car bed. And that was that. The crib goes down tomorrow!

His new bed set-up.

Showing him his new bed.



Success!

(the picture below was taken in the dark... don't think I tempted with fate and turned on the light just to take a picture!)

Jeff thinks he may have went down easy but thinks in the middle of the night he'll wake up and get scared casue he doesn't know where he is... we'll see!

Wish us luck

Tonight we are trying to move Carson into a big boy's bed! Well, at teh very least we will be setting it up in his room and asking him if he wants to sleep in it.

We just got back from an insane morning with Sofia, Isabelle and Ethan at Cosmic Adventures. it's a huge indoor playground (and I mean HUGE) and then we ended the morning with a fantastic lunch.

Carson loves playing with his cousins. He also loves indoor (and outdoor, but we haven't seen so much of those lately) playgrounds. We went down teh biggest slides, he had races with his cousins, he played in the ball pit, ran across rope bridges, through the tunnels and all around the place. It was so much fun. I'll post pictures later.

Please stop

Last night was perhaps the first time I wanted Carson to stop growing.

After his bath I always take him out, wrap him in his towel and then I sit on the toilet seat and he cuddles right into me. He puts his hands down between him and I and rests his chin on my shoulder. He just fits there perfectly.

We tried...

Carson needs a haircut. He doesn't have alot of hair, and we've buzzed it a few times at home but we wanted to take him to get it done so they could do it around the ears and cut the back - it's not even close to being a mullet but it's going to happen soon enough.

Anyways, we talked to him about it the whole way. we watched other boys get it cut. We tried to sit down, he looked at the hairdresser and lost it. There was NO way he was letting her near him. So we packed up and left. It was worth a try!

Happy New Year

Wow - it's been a while. Soon I shall post some pictures to show you what a wonderful holiday we had.

This morning we had the second ultrasound to see Carson's little brother or sister - who is due on July 21st!

I love having this blog to check back to see how I was feeling/what I was thinking/what we were doing at the same stages of pregnancy with Carson. By now I had 5 dreams that Carson was a boy, and this time I have not a clue. We are super excited and Carson says he's having a brother but if you ask if it's a boy or girl he always says girl. Seems him and his mom feel the same way.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was definitely my favourite by far. Christmas Eve we made a snowman, went for a long walk, had a yummy dinner - just the three of us.

Snowman - Gallant style (notice the mullet?)

Christmas morning was fun! Carson wasn't overly interested in his presents, but we coaxed him into opening a few.

Then we headed over to Mom and Ricky's with the whole family (minus Carrie, Rob and the kids) for Christmas dinner. We put Carson for a nap there, and he just stayed in the playpen for a couple hours - no sleeping, but just for some quiet time (again, he's scaring me). Then everyone came over and it was pure Christmas bliss (or chaos, depending on who you ask).

Carson and Mommy both slept till 8:30 this morning - what a day!

Bizzy Bizzy day

Today is Christmas Eve. I took Carson to work for the morning. He was a hit. He was running up and down the hallways, pointing out the orange triangles, green squares, purple rectangles, and red ovals (someone said circle and he corrected them and told them it was an oval). He ran into people's cubicles to say Merry Christmas and even into the CFO's office and yelled Daddy (he's an older man with grey hair, not sure where the association came from?).

We went to the Christmas food table and he wanted only 6 carrots and one timbit. He was told what a good healthy child he was (heh, little do they know). The comissionaire offered him a cookie, he said thanks, he was told he was a good looking boy and again, he once again he corrected them and said "i daddy's special boy". I'll have to take a recording of him saying special boy, it's music to Jeff's ears and it's simply adorable.

He chased balloons, was taken for a ride on a dolly thing (that was then decorated with bells, reindeers and a santa) and paraded through the hallways. There were a ton of other children there, but he would rather visit with the adults then play in the kid's christmas room.

Then we went to visit his Daddy at work, where he ran around into everyone's office and again made a ton of friends. Jeff had to show off his letter skills, he just looks at the walls, at posters, at signs, anything with letters and starts saying what each letter is. If he knows words tht the letter starts with, he says those too. Some of his favourite are G for Grandma, M for Mommy, D for Daddy, N for Nono, E for elephant and of course, Z for Zamboni (which today was actually an N sideways, but I thought he was too young to try and explain that).

We got home an hour past his naptime, he stayed awake the whole time in the car and as soon as I got him out of his carseat, he laid his head down on my shoulder and went to sleep. Until 5 seconds later and we were inside, he opened his eyes, whipped his head to the christmas tree and said "put lights on christmas tree". I read him two books and then he was out like a light. That was two hours ago. Little boog is getting a good sleep. He'll need it for the chaos that will ensue tomorrow!

Tell me it ain't so

Carson's always been a fabulous sleeper.

The last month or so, about once a week he just doesn't nap. He has quiet time for an hour or two but doesn't nap.

I seriously hope this doesn't mean that he's coming off his nap!

But, between you and I, he's freaking awesome when he doesn't nap. He's hilarious, crazy, insane and a little rascal. Love it.

Maybe it's just me

But Jeff and I are keeping Christmas to a minimum this year.

I just find kids these days get sooo much stuff. Too much stuff if you ask me. And Carson is only two! He doesn't even know what the heck presents are. I've seen kids just rip through presents under the tree without appreciating or realizing what they have got. Maybe it's cause we grew up with not alot of money and I can remember savouring each and everything that I opened up. Each gift was special and I was thrilled with whatever it was. I want Carson to grow up that way, to grow up appreciating what he has. And doesn't just expect to get whatever it is he wants. Maybe I'm just expecting too much....

I think I spent $16 on him. And that's it. Two books, a school bus and a puzzle.

I go to people's houses who have little kids and there are scads and scads of toys, plastic (oh the plastic!) scattered around the whole house, and the kids probably play with like 10% of it. This year for Carson's birthday we actually did a recycled theme and asked everyone to bring Carson a toy that their child doesn't play with anymore.

I'm not in any way shape or form a treehugger or hippie, but I'm having serious issues with walking into toystores (read: Toys R Us) and seeing the towers of plastic toys being sold out faster then they can stock them. And then you see these plastic toys in a couple of years sitting on teh curbside waiting to be picked up by the garbage truck. And where does it all end up? In landfills! Ack! I figure if we can do our part, then I'll be able to sleep just a little bit better at night.