Carter Update

Carter is 2 years and almost 5 months old now and finally speaking! He says just about everything now in up to 5 word sentences, although he still requires a lot of translation by me for other people to be able to understand him (especially those not used to speaking 2 year old). During the day he will turn to me and say, "Mama, where dada go?". Or when I give him yogurt he'll say, "What ki ih it?", the translation being what kind is it. I know, for those of you who have 2 1/2 year olds this is not much speech, but it's been a long time coming for our little Carter, so I'm so glad that he can finally communicate with words! Other favorites include:

- "What's that"? He says this every 5 seconds as he points at EVERYTHING

- "Where's Teah?" He says this every morning when he wakes up or generally whenever she's not with us

- "Mama, Come Back!" He says this as soon as I walk out of his room for bedtime

- "Mama, let's play"

Here's a video of some of his new words

Carter is really in a very cute phase right now and I am reminded of how much fun a 2 year old is. I don't know why the term "terrible twos" was every coined because it's such a fun age. He mostly wants to do everything by himself and being more savvy than I was the first time around, I let him. It's amazing what he can accomplish without any help at all. He used a butter knife to cut up an entire banana into pieces to make a smoothie with us yesterday. He vacuums our floors almost everyday with an old dirt devil that I found which is the perfect size for him. He uses glass dishes at the table and sets them nicely on the counter when he's finished eating. He's started using Teah's safety scissors to cut small lines around the outside of a piece of paper. He has mastered the skills of jumping and running and climbing. Obviously, I can go on and on! Some of his favorites are:

Animal: dinosaur

Food: sausage links or bratwursts

Color: Blue

He loves dinosaurs and will roar like a dinosaur and pretend to eat me. Then he'll tell me that he's a big t-rex. If I tell him that I'm a t-rex, too, then he'll tell me that I'm a little t-rex :) He's not all perfect, he does run away anytime I attempt to change his diaper or put new clothes on him and he thinks that game is hilarious. When he's overtired he likes to play a game of running at you and slamming into you and he also enjoys sitting on (and squashing) his sister at times.

Preschool

Teah's first day of preschool orientation at The Montessori School was today. Yesterday she met with her teacher, Mary, for 45 minutes of individual time. Mary showed Teah around the classroom and then gave her some "lessons" for her "work" - as they say in Montessori. Everything that is available for the kids to work on is a specific Montessori learning material and the children have to have a lesson on the material before they are allowed to use that material during class. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Montessori method, one of the ideas is that the child drives their own learning. So, everyday the children are able to choose from the learning materials they have had lessons on or get new lessons from the teachers. Mary let Teah choose whatever she wanted from the "manipulatives" section and gave her lessons on how to use the ones that she chose during the 45 minutes, so that she would have somewhere to start for her first day. The items that I saw her working with (before I went to turn in some paperwork) included a basket full of different types of pouches from around the world - each pouch having something from that country inside of it, two bowls of small beads - the children move all beads from one bowl to the other using one hand, and a tray with small plastic rings of different colors that you can sort into different compartments based on color. Today, Wednesday, and Thursday are orientation days only for the new students in the classroom (each classroom has 3, 4, and 5 year olds). There will be 30 students in Teah's classroom (w/ Mary and 2 assistants) - 16 of them being new this year. So, this week there are the 16 students taking some time to learn how things work before everyone shows up next week.

So, I helped Teah hang her stuff up, take her shoes off, and get her slippers on and she was off! I watched her play for a few minutes and then went to the scheduled coffee w/ the director of the preschool and the other parents of new students. There were about 20 parents there and we used the 2 hours to introduce ourselves, talk about why we chose Montessori, and have some social time. It was really great and I remembered why I love the director of the school, Pam Boudreau, who founded the school and has been there 37 years! I was also reminded of why I love the Montessori method and it was great to meet some of the new parents.

Everyone picked their kids up on the playground and Teah was having lots of fun playing a game of "tumbling monkeys" on the jungle gym. She told me all about her new lessons that day - consisting of some type of rubber band box that you could hook up the different colored rubber bands to make patterns and some type of shapes that you put together to make certain pictures. I asked Mary how Teah had done and she told me that Teah was a "Tester" (i.e. likes to test the rules). Mary has been teaching at this school for 29 years, so she is very wise in the ways of preschoolers. She said that of course all preschoolers are testers, but that Teah was a bit more-so than others. Of course, I already know that! Mary didn't say it as if it was a problem, but just as if it were part of her little personality. She also said that they had plenty of experience with the "Testers" and that Teah was going to do great this year.

Some things I found out about the school:

Every month one of the preschool classrooms works together to make the food that is eaten by the parents at the monthly parents coffee.

Teah and I will be responsible for bringing (homemade or otherwise) a healthy snack for the class once a month.

The 2nd Saturday of the month is a planned family fun day for all of the families at the school, including their 4 preschool rooms and elementary classroom.

One of the Fathers of a student works for Bell's Brewery and will be hosting an adult-only Octoberfest! :)

The price tag for the school is a bit hefty, but I was reminded that almost all of the tuition goes to pay the teachers professional salaries with benefits and retirement - something that most preschool teachers don't get! I am really looking forward to this year and next when both of the kids will attend together.

A Successful Day!

Potty training for Carter officially began today! This morning Carter wore a diaper all morning. He sat down on the potty and peed quite a few times, but a few times in his diaper as well. We ran a few errands and he even peed on a public potty with me just holding him on. He took a good nap today for once and after nap I decided it was time to try underwear. He peed in them pretty good within about 15 minutes of putting them on. I explained to him that when he had to pee he had to tell mommy and we'd run to the potty, otherwise his underwear would get wet. I made a point to put him on the potty every 30 to 45 minutes after that and he peed almost every time I put him on, with dry underwear all evening. I was most impressed when he came running up to me after dinner and said, "mama po" (interpret as "mama potty"). I took him to the potty and found a little wet spot on his underwear. He had started to pee, then stopped and went to the potty! Hopefully we'll have just as much success tomorrow with a full day of underwear and maybe I'll even be able to snap a picture or two of him on the potty.

Ah the Monkey

The kids and I went to Build-a-Bear today to get Teah's bear (Pacibear) a fancy dress for one of her pretend birthday parties that she throws :) We had a gift certificate, so a fancy dress for Pacibear it was. Teah picked out a very cute bear-sized white and pink dress with sequins, but poor Carter was left-out. Since there was a special going on, I decided to finally let Carter pick out his own bear with some clothes. Trying to get a 2 year old to decide on one thing was interesting. Every time I asked him if he wanted one and showed it to him, he would say yes and grab it, but the next one I showed him he would throw that one out and grab it. I was starting to think that he didn't have a favorite when he picked the one he wanted and wouldn't budge. It was a monkey! He knew exactly what to do with the shell of the monkey and wasted no time picking out a heart and handing him over to get stuffed. Then the process of picking out clothes happened, much the same as the original process. I was thinking of getting some jammies, but Carter wasn't interested. When I suggested a soccer outfit I was met with emphatic noddings of the head and uh huhs, so a soccer monkey it was! I asked Carter what he wanted to name his monkey and everytime he says, "Ah Ah Ah Ah" - 4 everytime. So, the latest addition to our household is Ahah Ahah Hilliard - the soccer playing monkey. He comes complete with soccer jersey, soccer shorts, shin guards, soccer cleats, and a soccer ball. Maybe when we buy Carter some new big boy underwear tomorrow Ah (his nickname, since 4 Ahs is a little much :) will go to the bear store and get some of his own. He has already had to sit on the potty before Carter does. Here are some pics of Carter and his new friend:

Carter and The Potty

For the past few weeks I have been trying to gauge Carter's interest in the potty. First, I checked out every potty book from the library and he is mostly obsessed with them all. Numerous potty books talk about the little boys getting a new potty as a present, so the next step was for me to go out and get him his own potty. He sat on his potty yesterday and nothing happened, but this morning I decided to give it my best try by having him drink a whole cup of juice and then putting him on the potty in front of a TV show 20 minutes later :) I was able to get him to sit through 2 kids shows on the potty (= 40 minutes) and there was a tiny bit of pee in there afterwards. I made a big deal of it of course, but he let the rest out when on put his diaper on. Later that afternoon he took off his diaper and wanted to sit on the big potty upstairs - to my surprise, he sat down and started peeing! 5 minutes later he wanted to take off his diaper and sit on his little potty and he peed some more. We made a huge deal out of it and dumped it into the big potty. He immediately wanted to sit on it again and pee again, but didn't have any left in there. I told him that he needed to drink to make more pee, so he took one drink of his juice and sat down again, thinking something would come out after one drink!

I have suggested that he wear underwear before and he has always been adamant against them - wanting his diaper. I tried a casual suggestion for underwear again after his pee and he said yes. So, he wore underwear for an hour before bed and did great, mostly because I sat him on the potty after dinner and he peed again. He definitely knows how to let it out on command now and I'm so impressed with him. He only owns one pair of underwear right now, so tomorrow we're going to go shopping for big boy underwear and give them a try. Now I'll find out if he knows how to hold it! He's only 2 1/4 yrs old, so I'm surprised to be really trying to potty train, but I figure if he's interested then I might as well see where it takes us!

A Big Boy Bed!

Carter has officially been sleeping in his big boy bed for over a week now and is doing great! I decided to make the move because he had gotten very good at climbing out of his crib. When he first climbed out of his crib 6 months ago, I freaked out and bought a big boy bed, only to find that he wasn't ready for the move and that he stopped climbing out of his crib after only 4 attempts. So, he's been sleeping nicely in his crib since then, staying in and having no interest in his big boy bed, until he started climbing out again about a month ago. This time, he mastered the skill and was climbing out all the time. I was nervous about making the move after the last attempt, but it worked really well this time! We took the crib out of his room over a week ago and haven't looked back. As you can see in the pictures, I tried to make his toddler bed as "crib-like" as possible for a smooth transition. There's only a small space between the rail and the bed near the foot board and I still have tied the bumper around it so that it seemed familiar to him. Sometimes he gets out of bed and plays in his room, but he has only fallen asleep on the floor once and generally climbs back into bed when he's tired. What a big boy!

Bounceland

The kids and I ventured to Bounceland yesterday since it was pouring rain and was also right next to an errand I had to run. Bounceland is basically a big building with a really large space that has a bunch of those inflatable bouncy things in it for the kids. One section has three bouncers made just for the younger kids. We spent all afternoon there, stopping to have lunch at their little cafe and then bouncing some more. The kids had a blast! They loved the little bouncer that looked like a train and had an "obstacle course" inside of it. I really loved the fact that they played together the whole time. Every time one of them would decide to move to a different bouncer, the other would follow. There were a few bouncy items for the older kids and we did try those out. Mostly some really big inflatable slides that the kids could climb up, but then I would have to climb up with them and help them go down the really big slide. Good thing I'm a big kid myself :) Here are some pics of the excursion:

The difference between boys and girls

Somehow Teah and I were on the topic of babies the other day and she said to me,

"Mom, you can't tell if a baby is a boy or a girl until it comes out of your tummy. Then, when it comes out of your tummy, you have to look at the eyelashes. If the eyelashes are long, then it's a girl. If they're short, then it's a boy"

Yep, that's exactly it ;)

What Carter is doing instead of napping

Thanks to the video monitor, I am watching Carter right now in his crib. Instead of napping, he is doing the following:

Sits up with his legs out and puts his teddy bear on his legs.

Lets himself fall backwards so that he is lying flat with his teddy bear still on his legs.

Lifts up his legs so that his teddy bear falls onto his head.

He has been doing this over and over and over again! Well, if he's not going to nap, at least he can entertain himself.

Our new place!

We drove to Kalamazoo yesterday and took a closer look at our rental house for next year. We brought the kids this time and spent time measuring and planning and getting better acquainted. The kids had a great time and picked out their bedrooms :) Below is a slideshow with some pictures and a link to some videos. Use caution watching the videos - they might make you a bit motion sick

Click this link to view the videos:

New House Videos

SLIDESHOW OF PICTURES
View this link for videos:

Spotty Carter

Poor Carter was allergic to the antibiotics he had been taking for the last 7 days for an infected hair follicle on his back. The little guy is now covered in an itchy rash! He's mostly in a great mood except for the occasional rubbing of his face. I gave him some benedryl and he's napping now. The rash on his face is the worst, but it basically covers his entire body. Unfortunately, he has inherited his allergies to medications from me :( Hopefully his appearance will improve soon! In the first picture I asked him to show me his spots - at least he's still happy enough to say "cheese" for the camera.

Teah's Last Day of Preschool

Well, today was Teah's last day of preschool. The year has flown by and I can't believe that her first day was almost 9 months ago! Here are some pictures I took of her and her class this morning:

Is it all gone?

She thoroughly enjoyed this chocolate shake!

Teah's picture of herself

Teah drew a picture of herself today!

Making Cupcakes

Friday night Robert was on call overnight, so I decided that Teah and I would make some cupcakes in the evening. We bought the cake mix and were all ready to go! I decided to get the ingredients ready first, so I got out the oil, measuring cup, bowl, and it was time to crack the eggs. I showed Teah the first one and she cracked the other 2. When she looked at the back of the box and saw that eggs were the 3rd picture, she totally freaked out. Screaming and crying ensued because we cracked the eggs 1st and we were supposed to do it 3rd. She insisted that we had to crack new eggs and do it third this time. I tried to explain how that would be wasting eggs and that it was fine if we had cracked them first, to no avail. Thirty minutes of crying turned into giving up on the cupcakes for the evening! Ah, the joys of a 4 year old.

So, I put the eggs into the fridge and Carter and I scrambled them up for breakfast Saturday morning. When Carter went down for a nap, Teah and I were ready to try again and this time we were sure to crack the eggs third! Teah cracked all three eggs and did a great job - I never would've guessed that she could do it with so little shell getting in the eggs and making not much of a mess (the video is below). She also used the mixer to mix up the cupcakes and helped me put the batter in. She frosted and sprinkled her own cupcake when they were done and of course she's been helping us eat them all weekend. :) The second time around was a charm! Check out some pictures and videos below.

Teah cracks the eggs

Teah mixes the batter

She gets it...

Today Teah was watching WonderPets and they made a comment about the Tuck the Turtle that "he's really coming out of his shell" because he did something adventurous. Teah said, "That's silly, Mom, because Tuck is a turtle and he really does have a shell". Pretty smart.

Carter Update

Carter is almost 23 months old and doing all sorts of fun things! This week he jumped with both feet off the ground for the first time. This week he has also started consistently waving and saying buh buh to say goodbye to people - he even does it when we're leaving now to the person rather than waving bye bye after we've already walked out! His favorite book right now is "Which Pig Would you Choose?" by Edith Kunhardt - it's a really fun book and lets kids choose from four things on each page. Carter enjoys choosing something different everytime! I weighed him at Teah's appt. the other day and he weighed in at 29 lbs. He is also wearing a size 7 1/2 shoe now! Teah wears and 8 1/2, if that's any comparison. This week I switched his closet over to 2T clothes. I'm so thankful to have such a healthy, growing, and happy little boy! And I'm sure that he'll decide to talk someday :) He has started saying a few words consistently, like "bir" for bird, "bo" for a juice box, "Tuh" for Teah, and of course Mama and Dada very well! Oh - and he gives great kisses and hugs. Here's a few cute videos:

The Mall

Robert worked late yesterday, so the kids and I decided to head out to the mall for the evening. We started by getting Carter's feet measured, since I had a sneaking suspicion that he was outgrowing his current size 7. He now needs a 7 1/2 or 8! Teah wears an 8 1/2, so pretty soon his feet will be bigger than hers. We were at the pediatrician for an appt. right before the mall and weighed both kids. Teah weighs in at 36lbs (~50th percentile) and Carter 29 lbs (~70th percentile), so he still has a ways to go before he passes her in the weight department.

We then sat down at a BBQ restaurant to eat before heading to the play area. The mall near us has a great play area for the 3-5 year olds. It has a soft, rubbery floor with a big pretend tree that has stairs going up to a treehouse. There is a twisty, tunnel slide that comes down from the treehouse. There is also a child size train with three cars that each fit 4 kids and you can buy $1 tickets for your kids to take a ride. We are so spoiled right now being close to such a fun place! Carter wanted me to go down the twisty slide with him, probably because I have done that a few times lately at the McDonald's play places. This one is just way too small and crowded for me to go down, though, and he was definitely too afraid to go himself. He was OK going down sitting in front of Teah, though, with her hands around him. He loves his big sister! He also was too scared to go on the train the last time we were there, but gladly agreed to go this time if he was in the same car with Teah. She does a great job helping him! It's so much fun to watch their sibling relationship.

Overall, a great time was had by all at the mall and we found a way to pass the time away during our evening alone.

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.