Carter's new favorite thing

Carter's new favorite thing is to play in the water in the sinks in the bathrooms. He stands on the toilet upstairs to reach the sink and he even knows to turn the cold water on and not the hot water. He usually enjoys playing with his toothbrush and really doesn't get himself wet at all! I taught him to just barely turn the water on ("just right"). Well, the other day he decided to stick his whole face in to try to drink the water! It was pretty funny and I snapped a few pics.

Easter

Our Easter plans changed at the last minute due to the death of Robert's Grandfather. So, instead of staying at home, we made a last minute trip to Michigan for Easter weekend. Not exactly the circumstances we would've wanted to see family, but it was nice to see everyone. The viewing was on Easter Sunday in Flint and the kids stayed with my parents for the afternoon and evening. We were able to color some Easter eggs the night before and have an Easter egg hunt that morning before we left. Carter was surprisingly good at spotting the eggs for his age - I was assuming I would have to point them out for him, but he looked around and found them himself no problem! Both the kids LOVED the Easter egg hunt (we hid the eggs numerous times after they had found them all so they could find them again!), so perhaps we'll use our plastic easter eggs and continue the fun at home this week.

Yuck!

Last weekend Robert's parents were nice enough to come into town and watch the kids while we got some work done around the house in preparation for putting our townhouse on the market. Sunday night we went out to dinner at Fuddrucker's before they left - a little risky as the kids were worn out from all of the fun they had with Grandma and Grandpa! Carter had his usual - hamburger, fries, and ketchup. After he had eaten a lot of his food he started getting ansy and cranky, so I pulled out the magic keep your kids from screaming stick (also called a sucker :). Carter proceeded to dip his sucker in ketchup and lick the ketchup off! He didn't just try it once or twice - he kept doing it! I really can't imagine that tasted good, but he seemed to like it :)

Shedd Aquarium

The kids and I packed up and went to Shedd Aquarium this morning to meet up with my Great Aunt who was visiting my cousin who lives downtown. I realized that the last time the kids and I were there Carter was a baby, so it had been awhile... These things are so tough with little kids, because they cost a bunch of money, but kids enjoy them for about an hour - maybe an hour and a half. After that they both lost their interest and just wanted to run around like mad, which doesn't exactly work with two kids when they run in opposite directions! We really enjoyed ourselves a lot though in that first hour :) Carter's favorite thing was the huge tank that's in the middle of the aquarium. He pointed at the stingray when he saw them, but if they got too close to the glass where he was standing he would back away and look for me. Teah spent 20 minutes looking at the red sea urchins, but claims that her favorite part was the jellyfish she saw for about 2 minutes at the end of the day. There were no meltdowns and a good time was had by all, so I call it a successful morning! Carter passed out asleep in the car before we even hit the highway on the way home. Unfortunately, I had temporarily misplaced my camera this morning, so no pictures this time.

Bears, Bears, Bears

Bears, Bears, Bears Are Awake
Bears, Bears, Bears Are Asleep

A story dictated by Teah - transcribed by Mommy

It is winter and the bear is asleep. But one day, it wasn't winter anymore and the bear woke up. And then the bear snuggles. And then the bear plays. The End.

It looks much shorter when not written with crayon :) We proceeded to act out Teah's story today and she told me that we should add the letter S to the word bear so that I could be in the story with her. She came up with the title and the story entirely on her own!

Our "GPS"

The kids and I have been riding around in our car instead of the van the last few days because the car needed to be at home and ready to get its windshield repaired. Teah has a whole new view in the back of the car and she can see the entire front console. Everytime the blinker would come on Teah would say, "Mommy, Mommy, turn that way!" She thinks that the car is telling us which way to go to get to our destination and she has now taken it upon herself to watch for the "blinking green light" and tell me so that I'll know which way to go. She has so much fun with it that I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was making those green arrows light up! Who knew that we have GPS afterall :)

Do you know what kind of bird this is?

After looking at the Illinois Bird of Prey website I think that it was a Cooper's Hawk: http://www.illinoisraptorcenter.org/Field%20Guide/cooperpix.html . Pretty cool! Thanks Ann and Mom for the links.

This bird was sitting on a tree out by our parking lot for a couple of hours this morning. I snuck out to take some pictures - it was a pretty big bird and very beautiful! Now I'm just wondering what kind of bird it was. Anyone know?

Peanut Butter and Turkey

Per the advice of Jane Nelsen and her Positive Discipline books, I have changed our mealtime routine. Instead of fixing a plate for Teah, I set all of the food out on the table and let her decide what she wants and get her own food. The first night we did it was pasta night, so I set out the plain pasta, a bowl of sauce with a spoon, and some shredded mozarella. I have tried in the past to get her to eat her pasta with cheese on it, but she has always refused. On pasta night, I showed her how I liked to put some white cheese on my pasta and eat it. She ate a few helpings plain and then decided that she wanted to try it too. She did and said she liked it. She's always been very picky and I think this will help her to try new things!

Yesterday at lunchtime I decided on sandwiches, so I put out 2 types of bread, cheese, peanut butter, and turkey. Teah decided to put peanut butter on cinnamon bread. After spreading some peanut butter on one slice, she told me that she wanted a peanut butter and turkey sandwich. I had the immediate impulse to tell her not to, but then I thought, "why does it matter if she eats a peanut butter and turkey sandwich?". So, I told her to go for it. She put on one piece of turkey, some more peanut butter, and her top slice of bread. She ate half the sandwich and said she liked it! I guess we'll see what she decided on next time.

Hey, That's Funny!

Teah has been trying to tell me jokes for weeks now. Usually she says something like, "Mommy, I want to tell you a joke. How do people walk? On their feet". Her jokes have generally been plain old statements that for some reason she thinks are jokes. So, when she told me that she had a joke to tell me yesterday I was expecting the same thing. Here's what she said:

Mommy, how do chickens learn to fly?
They just wing it!

Hey, that's funny! :) She said that she made it up herself, but I eventually got out of her that she took a joke from Word World that Duck said and changed it to a chicken instead of a duck to make it her own!

Our Little Observer

In preparation for selling our townhome, we have been aquiring a few new items to spruce things up a bit. We ditched our disgusting old rug in the living room for a new one and put up a new shower curtain and rod in our bathroom recently. I put down the new rug while Carter was napping and when I brought him down from his room he immediately ran over to the new rug, pointed and stared for a minute, then hopped on and did a little dance. OK, the new rug was pretty obvious, so I wasn't too surprised when he noticed that. Well, I took the kids upstairs for a bath tonight and Carter immediately pointed at the new shower curtain. I was holding him and as I got closer he pointed to the new shower curtain rod! Seriously, this kid is observant.

How Big is Carter?

Papa's Whiskers

Lessons Learned

Recently due to Teah's leaning towards being a perfectionist and my new readings of Jane Nelsen and Positive Discipline, I decided to start turning my mistakes into learning experiences for Teah. Well, yesterday gave us quite a few learning experiences!


First, when I was putting Carter into his carseat (in the middle seat of the van) I put my knee down on the seat next to it and squashed right into an old banana peel. My whole knee was covered in what my mom coined to be "banana guts". It was disgusting. Now I have to describe a book that Teah and I have read in order for her side of the story to make sense. The book is called "Watch out for Banana Peels" and it is Grover giving some safety tips and trying to be goofy at the same time. Most of the safety tips are practical, like don't play with the stove. But the books throws in some sillies like watch out for banana peels. I tried to explain to Teah when we were reading it what they meant by it, but she always seemed confused that they were telling you to watch out for banana peeels. So, as you can guess, she was ecstatic to discover when I squashed into the banana peel that you really should watch out for them! We also discussed the lesson of putting trash where it belongs.

After getting home from the same trip, I went to put the diaper bag on our kitchen cart and as I pushed it back a little I knocked off a glass bowl that was sitting on the back and it broke. This led to a good discussion of how things should be put where they belong. When I told Teah that mommy had made a mistake and we talked about what we had learned from it, she said, "Mommy, it's really important to learn something".

So, the very same day and not long after the bowl incident, I decided to bake a frozen pizza in the oven for lunch. I was preheating and smelled something funny, but of course didn't investigate. When I opened the oven to put the pizza in I discovered that I had melted four magnetic plastic toy letters that Carter and I had put in pretending they were cookies. I have no idea what I was thinking actually encouraging Carter to put something into our actual working oven. Thankfully, I think he has forgotten about it because he hasn't tried it on his own. Lesson learned - don't let Carter put things in the oven and perhaps check it before turning it on! The letter below used to be an F...

One Hell of a Trip

We were in Michigan this past weekend (more blogs to follow about the weekend) and had quite the time trying to get home. We were staying at my parents house who live out in the country on a road that is quite prone to drifting snow. We left Sunday afternoon at around 3:30 to drive back home. Less than a mile from my parents house we got stuck in a snow drift that was covering the entire road. It was amazing how much snow was blowing - my cousin had driven through 30 minutes before and you couldn't even tell. Within 15 minutes the snow was drifting up against our van. We tried pushing the van and putting our mat under the tires to try to get some traction, but it was no use, we were really stuck.



I called my roadside assistance and was told that the earliest a tow truck could get to us was 2 hours. It was very cold outside - in the single digits - and with the wind and blowing snow it was like a blizzard outside the van. A truck showed up behind us - they were trying to get out as well. They had a shovel, so they tried shoveling the van for awhile, but it was a lost cause. They truck behind us didn't think they could go backwards without getting stuck and our van surrounded by enormous amounts of snow was blocking their way forward, so they were stuck as well.


Stuck count = our van + one truck






My mom started making calls around to the neighbors to see if someone could get their earlier than 2 hours. She got a hold of the guy who has a 4-wheel drive truck with a plow attached who they pay to plow their road. He showed up after 45 minutes of being stuck. I don't know why he didn't have his plow down, but he just tried to drive up to us and he got stuck.

Stuck count = our van + one truck + snow plow truck


Now there's three of us stuck on this road! The snow plow truck calls a buddy of his to come and pull him out. He appears to have a regular truck. He starts backing down the road and gets stuck! Stuck count = our van + one truck + snow plow truck + buddy truck


This is a picture taken w/ my cell phone looking out our front window. You can see the stuck snow plow truck and in the distance you can see his buddy, now stuck.










The buddy truck had gotten pull of into the side of the road and was really buried. We saw him get out and start shoveling around his truck and thought there was no way he was going to get out of there. But after 20 minutes he was free! He was able to drive close enough to the snow plow truck to get the tow line attached. He floored his truck to try to pull the snow plow truck out and his truck flopped around like a fish on the end of a line - the snow plow truck didn't budge at all. They tried it one more time, but it was no use. At this point we've been stuck for 2 hours and the tow truck arrives. At this point is is dark outside and 4 degrees. "Finally!", we think, "we're getting out of here". We can see the tow truck turning onto the road from the main road about 200 yards ahead, but then he stops. We're thinking that he stopped to talk to someone or something. A few minutes later the guy in the snow plow truck tells us that the tow truck is stuck - his buddy called him and told him






Stuck count = our van + one truck + snow plow truck + tow truck


The tow truck called us to make sure our van was still running and we still had heat and we were all OK because a cop had arrived and was planning on walking down to make sure we were OK. We were starting to get worried because our gas gauge was almost to the low fuel point. We had now been stuck for 2 1/2 hours. We were told that a tractor was coming to pull the tow truck out.


Thankfully we had our portable DVD player and lots of snacks for the kids, but we had left at Carter's naptime thinking that he would nap in the van on the way home, so he was getting REALLY cranky the poor guy. We let each of the kids get out of their carseat for a few minutes and sit in the passenger seat for a bit, so that helped too, but it was rough going and Teah understood enough that I think she was starting to get a little scared that we were stuck.


Well, now the tractor shows up. This thing has tires that are taller than I am with a big snow plow attached to the front. He pulled out the tow truck and then pulled out the snow plow truck. To get to them he had to plow a bunch of snow right in front of our van. Even if he could've reached us to pull us, there was nothing on the front of the van to attach to, only the back, so the plan was to plow out to the left of us (we were stuck on the right side of the road) to be able to attach to the back. As the tractor was plowing, HE GOT STUCK!


Stuck Count = our van + one truck + giant tractor


At this point I started preparing to abandon ship - packing a bag with some essentials in case we were told that they just couldn't get our van out that night. We had been stuck a full 3 hours. A big old F-150 shows up that comes barreling down the road to help pull out the tractor. They attach a tow line to the tractor and it was a very crazy sight to see this truck gun it to try to pull this huge tractor out of the snow at night in a blizzard of blowing snow. I can't believe what he put this truck through, but they got the tractor out. The F-150 then starts driving right into the ditch - Robert and I thought, "Is this guy crazy?!". He plows through all of the snow and drives in the corn field to our right to get behind us - this is one hell of a truck! The plan was to pull us backward a bit so that the tractor can plow out our way forward.


Now the snow outside of our van comes up to my waist - that's how deep it was drifting around us. Robert and 3 other guys started trying to figure out where to attach the tow line and it took them awhile, but they found a piece of the frame in the back. So, we made sure the kids were strapped in, put our seatbelts on, and prepared for the F-150 to pull us backwards. It took a few jolts, but we were pulled back a few feet and the tractor started plowing the way in front of us. There were a few moments where we thought the tractor would get stuck again, but he finally cleared the way. Three guys got in the back to push and we tried to drive out, but the snow pulled us to the right and we were stuck again. So, the F-150 pulled us backward again and more plowing in front of us ensued.


4 hours after getting stuck with 3 guys pushing we drove out and we able to make it to the main road! Carter fell asleep when the F-150 was tugging on us, but woke up when we stopped at McDonald's before getting on the highway to get Robert a new pair of pants, socks, and shoes. His pants had gotten wet of course, but then frozen solid.

So, we finally were headed home and got back just before midnight. What a trip!

Knock Knock...

Who's There?

Lettuce

Lettuce Who?

Lettuce is going to eat you!

This is the knock-knock joke that Teah told us today. Something she says that she learned in preschool. She might be missing a key point of knock-knock jokes, but she thinks this one is hilarious. I told her the 2 I could remember - banana/orange and boo who - she thought those were hilarious too. Guess it's time to get a joke book from the library.

Winter Fun

The kids and I went out to play in the snow today and had a blast! It was 31 degrees, which is honestly great weather for playing outside - not so warm that the snow is melting, but not so cold to play for awhile. The kids were both all bundled with their snowpants, boots, hats, heavy duty mittens, etc.

When we first walked outside Carter didn't want to walk in the snow and mostly just stood by and watched Teah and I. If he fell down, he would just sit there with his feet and hands on the ground not knowing what to do - I guess because of the snow. We were out for about an hour and by the end the kid was rolling around in the snow! After trying to make him do a few things, I realized that I just had to let him explore and get comfortable on his own. He started by just rubbing his hands around in the snow when standing on the sidewalk, but gradually got to the point where he walked right through the deep snow and then laid down :)

Teah and I went sledding down our little slope of our front yard (not really even a hill) and had a great time. I pulled both kids along on the sled through the neighborhood like a wagon. Teah made snow angels and I showed her how I could write her name in the snow by walking a path with my feet. Although I miss the mild winters of Atlanta, I am really loving being able to play in the snow with the kids. I can't wait for it to be packy enough to build a snowman!!

Our First Snow

Monday was our first snowfall of the season. Carter was only 6 months old last year, so this is really his first experience with playing in the snow. It was a sunny day with blue skies, the best for playing in the snow. While I shoveled the walk, the kids played. I helped them sled down the "hill" (more like slope) of our front yard, they tried out eating snow, and then we went for a walk to explore. Carter enjoyed sledding, but he really didn't know what to think about the snow. If he fell over, he would just sit there with his mittens in the snow like he didn't know what do to, and I would have to help him up. He was also leary about walking in the snow rather than on the sidewalk. Teah on the other hand as decided that winter is her favorite season. She had a lot of fun making snow angels and she loved walking through the snow, lying in the snow, eating the snow... Here are some pictures:

Supporting the Alma Mater

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year at our house. Both of our parents came to celebrate with us and we cooked up a good meal. The menu included turkey (of course), mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato souffle, homemade light and fluffy rolls, orange scented green beans, baked beans (Robert's grandmother's recipe), stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and holiday mimosas! Carter was napping during meal time, but that was probably for the best. Neither of the kids would each much of the Thanksgiving meal - too far out of their comfort zone I guess. Teah chowed down the pumpkin pie, though, but Carter was more interested in the cool whip. Here are a few pictures:

Teddy Bears

Here is a photo session that I had with Teah, Carter, and their teddy bears. It's too difficult to try to take pictures of the two of them together by myself, so we did it seperately. Carter is 18 months now and Teah will be 4 in December. Pretty cute if I do say so myself :)

Like Father Like Daughter

A few nights ago Robert and I were watching some TV after the kids went to bed and we heard a crash from upstairs. Of course I went running up there and I found Teah lying on her floor - still asleep! She sleeps in a regular twin bed with frame, boxsprings, and mattress, so the fall off the bed wasn't short. Nonetheless, there she was sound asleep on the floor. I picked her up and put her back in bed and she didn't wake up at all. What makes this even funnier is that I have heard the story of Robert falling out of bed and not waking up from his mother! Like father, like daughter...

Hilliard Movie Night

We've started a tradition of Hilliard movie night once a week now that Teah's old enough to watch a few things. We get the movies free from the library, so that's a plus too. Last night we watched Finding Nemo, which Teah had never seen before. We turned the lights low and popped some popcorn. Teah enjoyed the movie and Carter even played very nicely when he wasn't watching. It was great family fun!

Teah's Creative Side

Teah is growing up so much and is really a little kid now. She loves to color, paint, and build things. She's even trying to stay in the lines when she colors now (see her picture below). I brought out the waffle blocks the other day and Teah decided all on her own to make letters out of them to spell her name. The only one that I helped her with at all was the letter A.

Boys will be boys...

Carter is really into physical play. Maybe it's a boy thing, maybe it's a second child thing, or maybe it's just a Carter thing, I can't really say. Today he would not play with any toys, just wander around the house looking for trouble. He enjoyed finding my broom and tried to lift it from the ground up into the air. It was a full-size broom, so it was rather hilarious, but also quite dangerous, since he could get it up quite a ways and then he would just let it fall. Then, I decided to move our bookshelf to the other side of the room. It's a small bookshelf, only coming up to my hips (and I'm not tall :) and it has felt on the bottom so as not to scratch our floors. Well, I guess I gave Carter the idea that it could MOVE. I put it up against the wall and 10 minutes later he was over there pushing it away from the wall. He moved it a few feet away and spent 5 minutes walking in the new tunnel (space between wall and bookshelf) that he had made!

Election Day

I voted today, which was very convenient because our polling place is also where Teah's preschool is. At preschool, they had an election theme today and got to "vote" for what snack they wanted. Cupcake was a candidate, so it was an easy choice. I told Teah that it was election day on our way to preschool and Teah said, "Barack Obama". She must've remembered the name from a discussion we had a few weeks ago when we told her that Barack Obama was running for president. It's hilarious when she says his name - she seems to think that it's really fun to say. Check out the video:

Teah Lately

So, I'm starting to realize that Teah turns 4 in less than two months! She's such a big girl. We were taking a walk today and I told her that I could hear the road up ahead. She said, "No Mommy, that's not the road. Those are the cars. The road doesn't make any noise." I had to admit that she was right. :) Then we were crossing a little walking bridge over what is sometimes a stream, but just a ditch with a little water in it right now. She asked why there was a bridge and I told her that sometimes there's a stream down there. She said, "That's right Mommy, there's the rainy season and the dry season. Right now it's the dry season, so there's no water in the stream." I think that one came courtesy of Diego. She really loves to tell me how the world is!

Halloween

Well, we had a pretty great Halloween I would say. Yesterday, Teah had her Halloween party at preschool. We all dressed up and they had a little "parade" around the building where the parents lined up so the kids could "trick or treat" from us. Teah and I were pirates and Carter was a crocodile. After preschool Carter took a nap and then we were off to a Halloween party thrown by a friend that I met through a playgroup. It was kid oriented and we had a good time. Today, I decided to take the kids out in their costumes in the morning and get all of the pictures that I wanted. I didn't want to have to worry about pictures while we were actually trick or treating. Sometimes I miss the fun trying to take pictures... Robert was on-call tonight so the kids and I were on our own. Trick or treating hours are really early here - 3 to 6pm. At 3 o'clock I had hung up some decorations and downloaded some Halloween songs and had them playing. Carter woke up from his nap and we had a few early trick or treaters - we don't get many anyway - maybe 30 kids total. Well, then Teah got quite lethargic and told me that she wanted to go upstairs and take a nap. She told me that her throat hurt earlier, so I figured that she might be getting sick. I took her temperature and it was 102, so I laid her down and she fell asleep at 3:30pm. It was a REALLY beautiful day - the temperature was almost 70 degrees - so I had the windows open and Carter and I decided to walk to our next door neighbors during Teah's nap (we live in townhomes, so it wasn't far :) and trick or treat a little. He caught on to the idea pretty quickly and seemed to really enjoy carrying around his pumpkin basket and going up to the houses. He took a little break to eat a sucker on the front porch - it was really relaxing and fun to spend some time with just Carter. At 5pm I woke Teah up - her fever had gone down from the Tylenol, so we went out trick or treating around the block. I really didn't want her to miss out on that. The kids had a great time - Teah said Trick or Treat and Thank You. About 3/4 of the way, Carter pooped out, but I convinced him to sit in the stroller with another sucker. Teah started pointing out "scary" things that she wanted to avoid - like a guy who was dressed in a pretty scary devil costume and some window decorations. One of the last houses we stopped at there was a sign that said "The wicked witch lives here". Perhaps this should've been a hint for me to skip this one. There were 2 little kids lined up in front of Teah and the woman came to the door dressed as a witch (green face, hat) and cackling. When Teah saw her she freaked out, dropped her basket, and ran away screaming and crying! It took me a few minutes to get her to calm down. Hopefully she will not be having any bad dreams about witches. The kids had a little candy when we got home and it was fun to relive the joys of Halloween as a child through them :) Check out the slideshow of pictures:

Flashback Friday

2007 - Carter in a bowlfull of candy!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

A Morning Surprise

Yesterday morning Carter woke me up as usual. I went to get him from his room and noticed that Teah's door was open. We don't shut it all the way at night, so sometimes it creeps open. I went to shut it and it didn't look like she was in her bed. I figured she was just hiding under her covers a bit, but went in to check. Sure enough, she was nowhere to be found. Normally the minute Teah's feet pitter patter across the floor it wakes me up, but I guess I was sleeping very well that night. I went downstairs and found her asleep on the couch with a blanket over her. It was 8am and I thought that she must've woken up an hour before and came downstairs. Well, when I told Robert about it when he got home from work he told me she was there asleep on the couch when he left at 6am! I guess it's time to start shutting the gate when we go to bed...

Pumpkins!

We went to Aaron & Pam's pumpking carving party tonight and had a great time. Martha gave me a great pumpkin idea (check out the pick). The kids weren't very interested in helping, but they had a great time playing. We were able to get them both to fall asleep at Aaron's and picked them up to leave around midnight. Teah didn't wake up at all - she went from house to car, car ride, then car to her bed without waking. Carter on the other hand was awake the entire drive home, but went back to bed with a bottle. So, all went well and a great evening was had by all!

Carter's obsession with dogs

Carter is pretty obsessed with dogs. He always points when we see them on walks and gets upset if they start walking in a different direction than we are. Our next door neighbor has a dog and every tme we leave the house we have to walk in that direction to see if Buddy is out on his line. Last week in Michigan he followed Skeeter (Robert's parents 15 year old Beagle) around the house. For the first few days he didn't even try to touch her - just followed her around. Even after that he was very gentle. He loved just following her around and bending over to look at her face! If she laid down he would sit down next to her (see picture!). We went over to visit the Wade's for dinner yesterday and they have a much larger black lab with a very big bark. I was carrying Carter inside and Ella barked a few times. Poor Carter just started screaming and crying. For the first hour we had to keep Ella separated and he would cry if he just saw her. Then he must've forgotten about the barking because he wanted to watch her and try to pet her again.

I wasn't expecting that!

I was getting ready in the bathroom this morning and Carter was hanging around climbing up on the stool next to the toilet. The lid was closed and he was behaving himself. I stopped watching him for a minute to put my hair up and he opened the lid and started to climb on in! One foot was all the way in the toilet before I pulled him up!

Carter Update

Carter is 16 1/2 months old now. Last week while we were in Michigan he perfected his run. He had been walking really fast, but last week he decided to work on picking up his knees and running. He picks up his knees a bit too much which makes him wobbly - it's hilarious to watch! Other things he has learned recently: perfected his eating with a spoon, sometimes can poke things with a fork and eat them, animal sounds: cow, dog, duck, snake, and monkey. When he wants something he will reach his hand for it and then open and close his palm - it's funny how he just made that "sign" up all on his own. He will also vigorously shake his head no if he doesn't want something. He has been saying the "mama" sound for awhile now, but only recently has he started to use it to actually get my attention. He's growing up so fast!

Our Trip to Michigan

Last week we packed up the family and headed to Michigan for the week. Robert's sister Marj, who is now a permanent resident of Tampa, was up for a visit, so we drove over to metro-Detroit on Saturday. It took 6 hours total and the worst part of the drive was the stop at the rest area because Teah was afraid of the bathroom and refused to go. It was busy and the toilets were loud - she doesn't like the loud flushing. Anyway, here are some of the highlights of the trip.

Good Sleep

Finally, the kids slept well while traveling. We hadn't traveled since I stopped having to rock Carter to sleep - and not having to do that this time around was GREAT! When we were in Michigan for his birthday in June I ended up walking around with him (since neither of our parents have rockers) for 15 minutes for naptime and bedtime and he weighed 22 lbs at that time! It was hell on my back. Well, this time around I just gave him his bottle, laid him down in the pack -n- play, and walked out. Voila! he fell asleep without issue. It was tight quarters at Robert's parents house (Thanks to them for having us all stay!) so we brought Teah her Thomas the Train tent and a little kids pullout foam couch that fit inside of it. She slept in there and thought it was great. Now I wish I had taken a picture of her sleeping quarters!

Cousins

We drove up to Flint to visit Robert's grandparents, his aunt and uncle, and their children - Emily and Sarah - who are Robert's cousins, but more the age of our kids. Emily is 5 and Sarah is 3 - Teah and Sarah were born only a few months apart. The kids had a great time playing together. Emily did a great job watching Carter if he would walk out of sight and playing with him! Sarah and Teah played nicely without too many problems - a big feat for 3 year olds!

The Library

Here in the Chicago burbs we live in an unincorporated section of the city, which means that we pay no city taxes. The downside is that we also cannot get a library card without paying for one. So, we haven't been to our library much. While in Troy we all took a trip to the Troy library and had a really great time. Teah checked out 15 books and read them all numerous times in the 2 days before we left. I think that her favorite was called Mommy in my Pocket.

The Corn Maze

After Marj left to drive back home, we drove to my parents house in the country. Right across the street is a field with feed corn, so this time of year the corn hasn't been harvested yet, but it's all dried out. While Carter and Daddy napped on afternoon, Teah and I went out to play in the "corn maze" (field across the street). We had a REALLY great time finding a few cobs of corn inside the husks and playing the game, "trying to get out of the corn maze" after we would walk in a little ways. Here are some pictures that I took.

It was a great trip and we all enjoyed seeing Marj as well as the rest of our family and even a few friends. We headed home the following Saturday after a BBQ. Carter had woken up early from his nap because Teah walked into the room where he was sleeping at my parents house because she wanted to get to their computer. Well, we didn't get home until 9pm - at least an hour after their bedtimes - and neither of them fell asleep on the way home. I couldn't believe it! Now I'm still trying to adjust the kids back to Central time - Teah has yet to wake up later than 6:30am since we've been back!

Flashback Friday

Well this is my first "Flashback Friday" blog. Thanks for the idea Becky - I love it! I started it on Friday, but am publishing it today, so I guess now it's a "Flashback Monday"... doesn't quite have the same ring!

3 years ago... October 2005
























2 years ago... October 2006
























1 year ago - October 2007







Currently - October 2008

The many faces of Carter

Teah's latest phase

With the kids so far I've learned that everything is a phase - the good and the bad will all pass. All summer Teah had gotten into a really good groove. She was for the most part very polite and easy going. Before that had been a "screaming phase" where she was just screaming about everything that would happen. It was strange because one day is just ended and she was so well-behaved. I was hoping this well-behaved Teah wasn't a phase, but a permanent disposition - unfortunatley that was not the case. About 3 weeks ago we entered another screaming phase. Actually it's more of a defiant phase this time around. She can't handle it at all when we tell her she can't have or do something that she wants. She wants to do everything by herself even more than before. Numerous times we've found her with the gallon of milk and a cup on the floor about to try to pour herself a drink. The funny thing about these "bad" phases is that they always seem to happen when Teah has shown a big change and started doing things that she hadn't been doing previously. You would think that she would grow and change gradually and we wouldn't really even notice, but it seems to be more that in a week she just starts doing all sorts of new things and understanding things in a different way - this is when she enters the bad phases. I can see that probably numerous things started this one rolling - she realized she could open the fridge by herself, she was finally brave enough to go down the slide at the mall, she started writing her name, and she started preschool. So, I guess she's just dealing with the new idea of her "big girl" self. Check out the picture below - it's the first time that Teah has drawn a real picture. She drew the sun all by herself, colored the sky blue, and added the grass at the bottom. I think it's some sort of developmental milestone when children start drawing pictures with a bottom (ground type of area). I drew the outline of the cow and she added the face and ears. Notice the piece of grass that Teah drew up to the cow's mouth :)

An eventful weekend

So, we rarely have many functions to attend, but this past weekend we had two in one day. Addison's 1st birthday party (Mike & Lindsey's daughter) and a BBQ thrown by one of the few other residents that has a child. Carter was getting over a bit of sickness or perhaps just a reaction from his vaccinations, so there was no way he wasn't getting a full nap that day. So, Teah and I headed out to Addison's birthday party and left Robert at home to laze while Carter napped (for 3 1/2 hours). It would've been nice for everyone to see Carter, but it was also very nice to just have Teah. She's very easy to deal with by herself, especially when we're at a house with toys, a playset in a fenced backyard, and a friend (Austin) to play with. Here's a picture of Addison in the hairbow I got her (love the little girl things! - I tried it on Carter in the store to see how it looked :) and the best one I could get of Austin and Teah. It's impossible to get them to both look at the camera. Funny that in this picture they look like they're dating LOL.

Addison's 1st Birtday!

Teah and Austin

I hated having to leave the party early, but Teah and I headed out to pick up Robert and Carter and go downtown to our next function. The kids took a little break in the van and ate some chicken nuggets on the go. The BBQ was fun and the kids were both great. Carter was obsessed with the closed bedroom door, behind which he could hear the barking dogs. Teah was hilarious - She found a little piano and decided to get everyone's attention (there were like 15 people there) and proceed to sing along to one of the songs with the attached microphone. She really isn't shy. The kids didn't get to bed until 9:30pm, but we all survived and actually had a great time!

A flu shot please?

Teah was with me yesterday when I went into our local grocery store pharmacy to get a flu shot. It told her I was going to get one and she said, "Mommy, I want a flu shot!". I told her that only grown-ups could get flu shots here and she would have to get one at her doctor's office. She seriously argued with me for 2 minutes about wanting one right now! :) I'm sure she'll change her mind once she actually gets one - I guess she doesn't remember last years...

Teah's 3rd Day!

Well, I'm sure that I won't blog about every single day of preschool, but today was a pretty good one. The kids were a little challenging getting ready to get out of the house, so I'm glad that they day turned around.

On the preschool calendar for today was "wear red". So, Teah picked out a red shirt and wore her red shoes. I dropped her off at 9am as usual and didn't even come back to peek in today. It was a beautiful fall day, so I let Carter walk most of the way home to get out some of his little energy. He stopped every 5 feet to point at something - a stick, a leaf, a plane in the sky, a bird in the sky, a dog walking by, the trees, the grass :) Then I'd tell him what each thing was and we'd talk about it (by we of course I mean me). It was really great to have time with just the two of us so I could slow down and watch him explore the world! It's amazing to watch him learn about the world.

After our walk, Carter and I went to the mall and I was finally able to use a gift certificate I had for Mother's day and buy a few gifts that needed to be bought. I even found a pair of jeans that fit me and I like rather quickly. We came back to pick up Teah a little early and I watched the end of class. They were using glue sticks to make a big construction paper Clifford the Dog - I'm guessing because today's theme was read and he's the big red dog. They had done a little worksheet that day that had three sets of two pictures. For each set they were supposed to color the item that was red. They had also been given a blank piece of paper with the instructions to draw something for mommy. The teachers had written next to all of the scribbles what the kids had said they were drawing - it was really cute. Teah had written her name for me. Teah also used scissors for the first time to cute out a little lady bug craft.

When I picked Teah up Mrs. Kassanders let me know that Teah was starting to test out the rules. She didn't want to pick up at clean-up time and had told the teachers, "I don't want to". She also hadn't flushed the toilet after going potty and when the teachers asked her to she covered her ears. I talked to Teah about the flushing the potty. She told me that her teachers had to help her and she had covered her ears - the teacher and I were both thinking she had done this to try to act like she wasn't listening to them. I told Teah that covering her ears wasn't a very nice thing to do with her teacher. Thankfully she explained that she doesn't like how loud the potty is so she was covering her ears because of the noise. Of course that made sense once I heard it because she always as to cover her ears before we flush whenever we're using a public potty. So, I ran back and talked to Mrs. Kassanders about her not liking the noise and that's why she was covering her ears! Mrs. Kassanders was just really excited that we had discussed it and figured it out together - I think she was really happy about having some parent/teacher communication going on.

It's really fun to have Teah tell me about preschool afterwards and I'm pretty surprised by how much she tells me and remembers about her day. The 3rd day was a good one!

Silly Pasta

Teah has always made up her own names for things. For example, she calls Target "the ball store", Toys R US "the S store", and string cheese is "white cheese", english muffins are "circle bread"... the list goes on and on. Well, we had farfale (bowtie) pasta for dinner yesterday. Teah decided to call them SILLY MUSTACHE PASTA! I thought it was hilarious and definitely my favorite self-named item :)

Teah's 2nd Day!

Teah had her second day of preschool yesterday. I didn't cry this time, although I was pretty emotional when I left and I did return 30 minutes later to peek on her. I needed to grocery shop, so at that point I decided to commit to being gone the rest of the time (no more peeking!) and Carter and I headed to Trader Joe's. It was nice to shop with just one child. We got back to pick Teah up a little early, so I was able to peek in on the last 10 minutes of class. The theme of the day was new friends and they were coloring a picture of two little kids hugging. The names of the 5 kids were written around the outside. After coloring they sang a song for each kid - inserting their name into the song and pointing to that person, then glued a picture (I'm assuming they'd taken and printed out earlier in the day) underneath the right name. It was really cute.

Teah seemed to have a great time for the 2nd day as well. I'm waiting for the day that she throws a tantrum about something, but maybe she only reserves those for me :) She told me about their snack and about the toys that she played with. Mrs. Kassanders told me that she was really impressed with Teah's ability to listen to the songs they were playing and memorize them quickly, keeping well with the beat. She mentioned putting her in a music class or something since she seems to really like it. Teah always tells me that she wants to play the piano when she grows up, so next year I'll have to look into lessons - when she's a little older and we have a little more disposable income!

Well, it looks like this preschool thing is going to work out and I am even starting to look forward to 2 1/2 hrs of time with Carter.

Teah's 1st Day!

** Picture: Teah in front of her cubby**


Teah had a great time at her first day of preschool! We walked over to be there by 9am. Teah hung up her coat and backpack in her cubby and went right in. We took a few pictures (check out our photo album - http://hilliard.myphotoalbum.com/ - for more) and Carter and I stayed for a few minutes. Teah immediately went in and starting playing with a pretend castle with a little boy in her class. There are 5 kids in the class right now, but last year they started out with 6 and ended with 15. Other than Teah there are two little girls and two little boys - Dima, Rodeena, Basel, and Marco.

After a few minutes I went over and told Teah that it was time for me to leave and asked her if that would be OK. She said, "yep", and kept right on playing. So, I made her give me a kiss goodbye and left (see blog below for my reactions :). I ended up peeking in (without her noticing) through the door 2 times - once Teah was playing happily with the dolls and the other she was in the girls bathroom. One of the little girls was screaming the first time I peeked in, obviously upset being away from her parents. With the second peek she seemed to have fallen asleep sitting on Mrs. Kassanders lap.

When I picked Teah up they were out playing on the playground. I talked to Mrs. Kassanders for a few minutes and she told me that Teah had done well. I guess she dawdled a little at clean up time, but not too bad. We went down and picked up her papers - she had colored a picture of a school that had a poem attached about the first day of school. There was the calendar for the month, which basically just tells you the topic for the day and a few other things. For example, Thursday's theme is "New Friends", next week Tuesday they are supposed to wear red, and the Thursday after that they're supposed to bring an apple.

After we got home I asked Teah questions about her day and she did a great job answering. She told me that they had raisins and crackers for their snack. When I asked her if she had something to drink she told me that she didn't like the orange juice so her teacher had dumped in down the drinking fountain and she had thrown the cup in the trash. I asked her if all the little kids had been happy and she told me that one little girl was sad, probably because she wanted to see her mommy. When we read the little poem attached to the picture she colored that talked a little about being scared and wanting to go home when you're at school, Teah told me that she hadn't felt that way :) Sounds like a great first day of school!

Mommy Reflections

Teah started preschool today. I can't believe I thought that I might not cry. :) She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-11:30am and right now it's 11:06 as I'm writing this. So, I'll have to blog about how her first day went for her later in the afternoon. I, on the other hand, have spent the last two hours reflecting on my own emotions.

I made it through the actual dropping her off with just a few moments of glistening eyes, but when I walked out of the building I sat on a park bench, gave Carter some breakfast in his strolled, and cried. Once I had my moment I realized I didn't know exactly when to pick her up - was it 11:15 or 11:30? I couldn't remember. So, back to the front desk I went. Teah's preschool is in the basement of the building so I decided that I needed to peek in after chatting with Dee (working the front desk) for a few minutes - it was 9:30am. Both of the doors were closed, but they have little windows in them. I peeked in and saw Teah happily playing with a doll. There are only 5 kids in her class right now and one little girl was crying for her Mommy. Teah seemed oblivous to this :) After peeking I lost it again and had to take another "moment".

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

~Elizabeth Stone

When I dropped Teah off in her room there was a maintenance man working in one of the rooms next to it and it made me uncomfortable. I thought, "Who is this guy? Do they know him?" I realized one of my first emotions of leaving Teah was fear. The quote above is exactly it - my heart was in the preschool and I wasn't there to protect it. I love the preschool and trust the teachers and know that it is as safe as it can be, but it's hard to get over the paranoia and worry. That made me think about how hard it must've been for parents (in general - I don't feign to even begin to know how those close to the situation felt) to take their children to school after Columbine - I had never really thought about it from that angle before.

I was the only one at the preschool who was dropping off my oldest child for the first time. The teachers gave all of the parents a little note with a baggie stapled to it filled with a tissue and tea bag. The note told us to go home, dry our tears, make a cup of tea, and relax. :) They could tell it was hard for me and they called and left me a message letting me know that Teah was doing fine (Carter and I were having breakfast at Burger King). The funny thing is, that's not what I'm worried about. I know she's ready and she'll do great with me not being there. I've always known that this was going to be harder on me than her. I wondered what it was then that made me so emotional and I realized it was because I always know what she's doing and now I don't. And honestly it's not a control thing. The fact is that I'm going to be missing some of her "firsts" and happy moments. I'm not going to be the person there to witness the good times and help her when she's upset. It's only 2 1/2 hours for 2 times a week and I know it's what she needs, but it's definitely part of my sadness just not being there with her.

A Big Step for Carter

Well, I finally think that at 15 months Carter is ready to fall asleep by himself for naps and bedtime. It's been a long and tiring journey, but I'm excited today that he's finally ready. If you're interested in the long and tiring journey, keep reading...

Carter didn't sleep more than 5 hours at a time until he was 9 months old - and often he would wake up every couple and need me to come into the room. At 9 months I just couldn't function any more without a good nights sleep. I wasn't being the best mom because of how tired I was, so I decided to let him cry it out. I had been rocking him to sleep up until that point, but I guessed the reason he kept waking up was because he didn't know how to put himself back to sleep. I HATED doing it, but was desperate for sleep. Thankfully the first two nights Robert slept upstairs and dealt with Carter while I slept downstairs in the basement with lots of background noise - I really can't handle the sound of my kids crying well. For almost 2 weeks we let Carter cry himself to sleep to go to bed and when waking in the night. After only 3 days he was sleeping 11 hours through the night without crying anymore, but at the end of the 2 weeks he was still crying for 10 minutes to fall asleep. For numerous reasons I started rocking him back to sleep again and thankfully his good nighttime sleep continued.

Since that point I've put him to sleep for naps and bedtime by rocking him with a bottle. I've always enjoyed rocking him to sleep for the most part, but I knew it would have to end at some point. There's a lot of "Mom pressure" out there to have your kids put themselves to sleep at a young age and to nix the bottle at 12 months, so I kept feeling like I needed to do something about the rocking and the bottle, but it worked for us and I enjoyed that time Carter and I had. I debated numerous times just trying the crying it out again, but we stuck with our routine for the most part. Once a week or so I would end up putting him down awake just because I couldn't get him to fall asleep and he would cry for 5 or 10 minutes to fall asleep. Last week I encountered one of those naps, so I did the usual and laid him down awake, fully expecting the usual crying, but it didn't come. He talked for a few minutes and then fell asleep! Right before this he had stopped screaming whenever he woke up in the mornings and from naps and instead would just babble until I came to get him. So, these two things made me decide that he was ready to put himself to sleep.

Today for naptime I kept mostly the same routine, except I gave him most of his bottle downstairs and just the last few ounces upstairs while rocking. This achieved a sleepy, but not quite asleep child. I laid him down sleepy, but awake - he sat up and I said my good night and left. No crying and he was asleep in 15 minutes! At bedtime I did the same thing and he was asleep within 5 minutes without a peep. I'm glad he's finally there and continue to think that if I just have the patience to wait until my kids are ready for something and don't give in to what everyone else tells me I should be doing, it'll work itself out.

Nobody's Perfect...

I lost my temper today with Teah and later I apologized for getting angry and yelling. It happens to the best of us with 3 year olds. When I told Teah I was sorry she said, "Don't worry Mommy, everybody makes mistakes sometimes". I know it's something she's memorized to say, but it was really cute.

Carter's Stats

Friday was Carter's 15 month appointment and here are the stats:

Weight: 23lb7oz - 34th percentile
Height: 31 1/2" - 60th percentile

Well, the doctor actually measured Carter at 32 3/4", but they measured him very quickly while trying to get him to lie down on that table with the crinkly paper. I've taken to measuring him myself at home - the doctors measurements are always WAY off! Three months ago he weighed 21lb13oz and was 30 1/2" long - he's a growing boy, that's for sure! The rest of the appointment went pretty well for 15 months. It's a bad age because they are old enough to know what's going on, but not really understand it. Teah's 15 month appointment was the all-time worst. She cried when anyone would even just walk in the room. She cried all the way home and then threw up her bottle all over me because she was so upset. I thought it would never get better, but by the time she was 2 I explained what was going to happen and she did great. Carter definitely cried when they would poke him or prod him or get too close to him, but he stopped quickly. The poor guy had to get 4 shots and of course he screamed at that, but it didn't take long until he was happy again. Overall a good appointment with a happy, healthy little guy!

Chef Carter

Carter has always been a fan of cooking. It started when he first discovered the pots and pans in the kitchen and would bang them around. Now he loves to pick out a pot and walk over to the counter and point up until I give him a big plastic spoon. He'll put some pretend food in the pot, shake the pretend salt and pepper over it and stir it all up. He has a little pretend grill as well that he puts pretend food on, squirts on pretend ketchup, and uses the little flipper. Not only is his favorite playtime with the food and pots, but he loves to watch me cook. If I put something on the stove he doesn't give up until I pick him up and let him watch. Often he'll sit on the counter while I prepare dinner. This kids is seriously obsessed! Maybe we'll be calling him Chef Carter someday... I'm attaching two videos of him helping me make the salad for dinner last night :)

Preschool!

Teah starts preschool next week and today they threw an open house. The idea was that parents would stay for the hour for the kids to get comfortable before next week when they're on their own. I found out that there are only 6 kids signed up for the 3 year old morning class - 4 girls and 2 boys. Teah turns 4 in December and I was worried that she would be much older than the other kids in her class, but there are 2 other kids whose birtdays are November and January, so I felt good about that. Only one other little girl came to the open house, but it was really good. I was able to talk to Teah's two teachers, Mrs. Kassanders and Mrs. Linnville, for awhile while the kids played. They both have four kids of their own. Then we had story time and Mrs. Kassanders read a book about school and another about a racoon who was afraid to go to school, but whose mommy kissed his hand so he could carry her love with him. I kissed Teah's hand and she gave the kids a little heart sticker to put there. It was very cute.

Pic: Teah's ready for her preschool open house!

When Teah and I first started talking about preschool at the beginning of the summer she would tell me that she was scared of preschool. We talked about it and we went to visit last year's class right before they finished for the year. After that visit when Teah saw all of the toys she wasn't scared anymore! She also watches a Wonder Pets episode where a baby blowfish goes to preschool and doesn't want his mommy to leave - they sing a song about her always coming back. So Teah has a really good understanding that I'm not going to be there with her - she seems really comfortable! The last step was her using their potties all by herself today while I was there. They have two bathrooms - one for girls and one for boys. The doors are always open and there are two stalls inside with potties that are tiny for the little kids to sit on. I thought that I would be sad about her going, but I'm really excited for her. She's so ready and I know she's going to have a great time and learn great skills. I'll report next week Tuesday on whether or not I cried :)

A Good Loser...

Teah recently got a new game called Zingo - it's basically a bingo game, except you turn over tiles and you take the tile and put it on your card. Two cards can have the same item, so if one is turned over you have to be the first one to pick it up or else you have to wait for another one. Teah kept winning every game she played. Sometimes people were letting her win, but then we all started trying to win and she was still winning! When Robert and I were playing with her Robert took a tile that I needed before I could get to it. I made a comment and Teah said, "Don't worry mom, you don't have to be sad. You can just wait for the next one". Now I'm thinking how well she's going to play this game - I was a little worried with her being 3 years old and all. Well, the next tiles were turned over and Robert took a tile that she needed. She burst out in tears! We were able to get her interested in the game again, but it looked like Robert might win. We told Teah that having fun was the most important thing and that when Daddy won she should say, "Good Job Daddy!" and give him a high five. Well, Robert won and Teah said, "Good Job Daddy" and she gave him a high five. Then she thought for a second and burst out crying. "But I wanted to win", she cried. I guess we still have our work cut out for us when it comes to being a gracious loser!

A Sack Race!

This was a priceless moment!

Labor Day Weekend

What a great weekend! My parents and in-laws both came to town to visit. The kids loved seeing Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa. We went to the mall on Saturday and then grilled out and watched the old Roger and Hammerstein's version of Cinderella (I love those songs!). The kids stayed up a little later than usual and actually slept in Sunday morning. We went to the zoo Sunday which is always fun. Something memorable always seems to happen with the animals and everytime we go it's always a different one. Once we saw the sloth bears climb all the way up the trees in their exhibit (which I don't think they're supposed to be doing). We've seen monkeys screeching and the tiger swimming through his lake. This time around we saw a polar bear dive from a rock into the water. It was really cool! We had beautiful weather the entire weekend and it was great to spend time with family.

Carter and Grandpa happened to be wearing the same shirt one day, so we made Daddy put one on and took some pictures!

Sunflowers

Teah and I planted sunflower seeds in our backyard this summer just after memorial day. We've watched them grow all summer long and now they're about 8 feet tall! Teah and I have watered them and watched them bloom. Tuesday evening we pulled off one of the flowers that was starting to wilt and about to fall. I had read you can harvest the seeds out of the middle and when I looked at the flower I couldn't see how there were going to be seeds in there. But sure enough when I pulled off the little green parts overtop of the middle of the flower, nestled in were a bunch of sunflower seeds. Teah helped me pick them out and now we're saving them to give to the birds this winter. We opened a few and ate them raw and Teah even tried them. The smell of them fresh from the flower was great. I have really loved this summer project with Teah!

One is the Easiest Number?

Well, Robert was post-call today and had enough energy in him to watch Carter while I took Teah with me to the grocery store. This got me to wondering how I ever thought having only one child was hard. I know it was because I went through it, but now that I have two I can see it's just a matter of perspective! I often take both kids with me grocery shopping and it definitely is not a simple task. Only having Teah with me today, even though she was acting up, was a breeze. And I used to complain about having to take only Teah before Carter came along... once again, there's that perspective.

Carter

Also known to Teah as "Sir Carter", "Carter Giant", or "Curious Carter". Now that this little guy is a toddler, he's joining in on the family blog and it's about time! He's 15 months old and what a great age. He has just recently learned how to use a spoon by himself and I swear he understands every word I say. He as a few words of his own too, including "ba ba" and something that sounds like "quack quack" when he sees a duck (in person, stuffed, or in a picture).

His favorite thing to do is to pretend to cook - maybe he'll be a chef someday. He LOVES to pull out my pots and pans and proceed to place numerous different pieces of pretend food in them. Then he'll walk over to the counter and keep pointing up until I get him one of my big stirring spoons. He then will open the bottom drawer of the stove to get out a lid (usually all of the lids). Finally, he'll sit and stir his food and pretend to taste it for forever (well, forever in the time of a 15 month old, which is 30-60 minutes).

He sleeps 14 hours a day and is generally good natured and happy. He has a few bad habits to break, like tackling his sister or stealing her toys because he likes her to chase him (not at all because he actually wants to play with the toy). So, all in all, he's a keeper!

A Whole New Blog

Well, I finally took the time to update our blog. From this post forward it is no longer "Teah's Toddler Blog", but "The Hilliard High Jinks". Having been Teah's blog for the past couple of years, previous posts are all about her. Well, now that Carter is a toddler himself it's time to include all of the craziness that happens in the entire Hilliard House!

Go Green

At 3 1/2, Teah has learned quite a few important things about the world. Yesterday I accidentally left the refrigerator open while I was refilling the water pitcher. Teah shut it for me and said, "Mom, you left the fridge door open. You're wasting energy!" Hopefully she'll do the same thing 10 years from now!

Teah's Funnies

Teah has said some funny things lately. The other day she was singing a kids song and I strated to sing along. She stopped and said, "Mom, you're making it worse!". :) This morning I told her what a big girl she was for keeping her nighttime pull-up dry. She said, "Thanks Mom. You're a big momma!" I think she thought she was complimenting me :)

Understanding

Well, Teah talks like she's all grown up sometimes, but of course she reminds you that she's only 3 quite often. There are some concepts she just can't grasp, like death. Today in the pet store Teah asked if we could buy some bones for when Scrappy comes back. I've explained to her numerous times that he's not coming back, but permanence is just not a concept she understands yet. It broke my heart just a little...

Reading

Teah can read! Kind of... There are quite a few words that she has learned how to spell. Well, today we had mail sitting on our table from Brookfield Zoo and the outside of the envelope says has the zoo logo. Teah looked at it and said, "Look Mommy, we got something from the zoo. See - Z - O- O". It was the first time that she actually told me what a word was when she had never seen that specific instance before. What a big girl!

Mo' Money

So, in the past I have explained to Teah that when people work they make money. She has a piggy bank and sometimes demands money for it, so we figured we should teach her at an early age that it doesn't grow on trees. Well, today Teah found a penny in our bedroom and wanted to put it in her piggy bank. Then she said to me, "Mommy, Daddy works to get money for me". She knows the ways of the world already...

Like a Kitty

Nana and Papa (Mommy's parents) visited this weekend. Papa currently has a mustache and goatee. Teah felt it and said, "Papa, you have whiskers just like a kitty" :)

Barry the Snake

Teah has named her first stuffed animal! I've been trying to get her to name things for awhile now, but she never has come up with anything when I asked. Well, yesterday she found a beanie baby snake in the basement that I've had for awhile. She came up to me and said, "Mama, this is Barry the snake. He's my best friend". :) How she came up with Barry I have no idea!

Does this make my butt look big?

The mascot for Kalamazoo College is a hornet and I was wearing a K shirt the other day with a hornet on it. Teah pointed at it and said that it was a bee. I explained to her it was a hornet and trying to figure out a way for her to know the difference, I told her that the hornet has a big butt (well, the one in this picture did). In hindsight, that may have been a bad idea. I told her that one time and now everytime I wear this shirt she points at it and says, "Mommy, the hornet has a big butt". Well today I wasn't even wearing the shirt and she commented that hornets have big butts. Then she said, "I have a little butt". Just for fun I asked her, "What does mommy have?". Of course she said, "a big butt" :) Now I'm just waiting for the day that she tells someone that they have a big butt in the grocery store! :O

Teah's Obsession

Teah is totally obsessed with Dora the Explorer. Yesterday at bedtime she climbed up onto her bed at the foot of her bed onto her ladybug sheets. She looked at me and said, "Mama, help me to jump over the ladybugs. Say Salte, say salte!". (Salte is Spanish for jump, although perhaps I'm not spelling it correctly). When I said "Salte" she hopped up onto her pillow. Then she said, "Great jumping!". I think she thinks that she IS Dora :)

Independence

Lately Teah is really acting like a 3 year old. There's a park that we walk to quite often and the play structure has one small slide and a set of three bigger slides. I have tried to get Teah to slide down the big slide for as long as we've been going to this park. I've tried telling her that I'd slide down next to her. I tried going down first to show her it was OK. I tried putting her stuffed animals down first hoping that she followed. I tried talking her into it by telling her what a big girl she was. I tried standing at the bottom and telling her that I'd catch her. Nothing ever worked. She would tell me that those slides were for big kids and that the little slide was just her slide. I had given up trying to get her to go down, but when we'd go to the park I would comment something like, "You're such a big girl now Teah I bet you could go down the big slide". Still it was only the little slide for her.

Well, the other day we were at the park and she was playing by the splash pad - a little distance from the slides. She went back over to the playground and I was fussing with Carter a bit before following her. I could still see her, but she was a little ways away. I was about to head over in that direction and when I looked over there Teah was going down the big slide! She really has to do things her own way and in her own time. She's definitely a big kid now!

Watch Teah go down the big slide:

Grown-up Questions

Well, Lindsey (a close friend) had her second baby a few days ago. Her son (Austin) and Teah play together a lot. Today I told Teah that Lindsey had a baby and Austin was a big brother. Teah responded with, "Mama, is it a boy baby or a girl baby?". I was taken aback by what a relevant question that was. I told her it was a girl baby. Then she said, "Did they give the baby a name?". Again the relevance astounds me! Her name is Addison. I think Teah asked more relevant questions when I told her the news than Robert did! :)

Baby Weight

Today Teah was sitting on my lap facing me and we were just chilling and watching some TV. She likes to poke my tummy for some reason and usually she comments that there isn't a baby in there anymore. Today, she poked my tummy and said, "mommy, you feel bouncy"! LOL I guess it's time to lose that baby weight :)