The latest

We survived Christmas, but it was a little rough. All three of us were/are still sick, and it hit us hard. Derrick is mostly better but Carter and I are still coughing. Carter is getting more quick each day and is definitely walking the majority of the time now.

I saw the PERFECT Valentine's Gift on TV today, but Derrick laughed when I told him about it. I can't imagine why. ;)

They are called smittens and the one is to share with your partner so you can hold hands in the cold. Too funny!

Organized Chaos

So yesterday was "one of those days" that I hope isn't repeated frequently. It started out with Carter waking up much earlier than usual. When I finally got him down for a nap, he was only sleeping for about 45 minutes when someone came to the front door and rang the door bell. The dog flipped out barking and he was awake and screaming instantly. I had offered to watch a friend's kids for her yesterday afternoon ( her husband is in Iraq for a year), so she brought them over around 1:30. Carter was of course crabby from having such a short nap and when she dropped them off she informed me that her 15 month old hadn't had a nap at all. So I had 2 older kids and 2 crabby babies to contend with. I tried to put the other baby down for a nap around 3. Rocked him to sleep but as soon as I stood up to lay him in the pack n play he woke up screaming. I left him for a minute to see if he'd settle, meanwhile went back downstairs where the oldest was keeping an eye on Carter. Picked him up and immediately felt his diaper leak through his pants onto my shirt. Needless to say, without going into every detail, it was a crazy afternoon, and I was very glad to survive it without any major incidents!!

Carter is walking everywhere now...when he wants to. Somedays he walks all over the place and others he still crawls...depends on his mood I guess? He loves reading all of his books, loves my pots and pans still, loves chasing the kitties everywhere and generally tormenting them and loves pulling the bows off all my Christmas presents....grrr.

December Pix

Carter's latest pix from this week. He has surprisingly not tried to pull down my Christmas tree yet....yet...there are still 12 days to go, remember.



He has 2 new teeth as of last week. He also now knows that a cow says moo (he has a book with a picture of a calf in it and always says "Booo" when we get to that page.) Booo - mooo, close enough, right?? :)

Animusic

So Carter rarely if ever watches television, which is fine by me. I have tried a handful of times to get him to watch something so I could make dinner or do a load of laundry, but to no avail. But yesterday I stumbled across a special on PBS that caught my eye. It's called Animusic, and as soon as Carter saw and heard it he was mesmerized. I have to admit that I was somewhat mesmerized as well. Here is a clip



There are a bunch of different songs that they do, you can find most on You Tube. Pretty cool!

LuLu Bell Strikes Again

All my well-orchestrated plans for a few minutes of free time yesterday were nearly thwarted....by a dog named "LuLu Bell". I kid you not. Said creature has previously ventured into our yard. Apparently her owners think it's fine to let her roam free throughout the neighborhood. She is a small white fluffy dog, the kind I affectionately refer to as a Fufu.

Well I knew when I saw it that I was doomed if the dog or cats caught a glimpse...they would all be woofing and howling at eachother. I shooed Radar down into the basement before she saw it and the cats were safely upstairs sleeping on my bed. Phew...close call!

"Tasty Treats"

Carter was on an eating spree yesterday for some reason. Not like I don't feed him constantly or anything. He started by sampling some of the dirt from a house plant. Next he took 2 bites out of a candle in my family room, yuck! And finally he made a valiant attempt to put one of Radar's bones in his mouth, but I grabbed that away before he was able to, phew. You never know what this kid is going to try!

Decorating

I love this time of year and all the traditions that go along with it. This past weekend we went out in the sub-zero temperatures to get our Christmas tree. Due to the extreme cold, we spent about 5 minutes looking around the lot of trees, grabbed one, tied it to the roof of my car, and sped home to get warmed up. Only when we arrived home and set up the tree did we realize our lack of sound judgement in this decision. The tree was very much see-through and had several gaping holes in it. But, trying to remain optimistic, I assured Derrick it would look fine once it had some decorations on it. Several hours later, it did look much better, but it certainly wasn't one of our better tree purchases.

After all the decorating was complete, I was trying to take the boxes downstairs to get the house back in order. There was a large box that had about 10 strands of lights still in it and as I was walking down the steps, the handle ripped and the whole thing went crashing down the steps. Needless to say, Derrick wasn't all that happy that I had desecrated his sacred lights.

Unanswerable questions....the rantings of a tired mom

1. Why does Carter sleep in on the days we need to go somewhere early (Sundays) and wake up at 6 am on days I would LOVE to sleep in?
2. Why does my cat who usually can't/won't meow, decide to start howling his little lungs out every single night after I turn off the lights?
3. Why does my dog, (who I was promised would clean up all the food Carter drops on the floor), turn up her nose at almost anything he drops, except maybe steak and chicken?
4. Why does pet hair accumulate faster than the national debt?
5. Why is my cat obsessed with licking his belly and playing with straws and q-tips?
6. Why does the phone always ring right after I put the baby to sleep?
7. Why too do my cats somehow sense I have just put the baby to sleep and commence immediately with chasing eachother all over the house like 2 stampeding elephants?
8. Why do telemarketers always call at dinner time?
9. Why does juice apparently taste better after the sippy cup has been thrown down on the floor several times?
10. Why at 8 pm am I ready to collapse and my son is still going stronger than the Energizer Bunny?

Why bother with toys...

Why do we buy toys. This doesn't seem like a deep philosophical question, and if you observe the pics I just took this morning, you will see the cause of my frustration. Yes those are ALL of my pots and pans all over my kitchen floor...again...

What should I be asking for for Christmas for my son who refuses to play with his toys? Yesterday I took a bunch of toys out of his toybox for him to play with, and there was a spatula on the floor...what does he go for, but the spatula.

He's also been on a beat-up-mommy rampage this week, giving me a fat lip twice by headbutting me and yesterday he threw a train at my head which hit me in the eye and left a big bump by my eyebrow. BOYS!!!!

I better go clean up the mess...

Catching up...

So I've been a bit remiss in my blogging efforts lately with the holiday and all, but hopefully I can get back on track before the Christmas craze sets in.

We had a nice Thanksgiving catching up with lots of family and friends, but are now ready to crash at home for the next week after all the traveling. Carter is doing great in the car these days, staying awake for most of the drive but being really good the whole time. He's been looking into some career options lately, trying his hand out at being a train conductor...
...or a pilot...

It is hard to believe it's already December and that Christmas is only 24 days away. I was debating about putting up a tree this year due to the craziness of my son, but I found some shatterproof ornaments and figured I'd give them a try. I just hope he doesn't pull the whole thing over on himself!