Carter's 3rd Birthday

Carter woke up on his third birthday to a room full of balloons.  He came into our room and said "mama, why did you put balloons in my bedroom?"  No tricking him.  Both kids enjoyed playing with the balloons all day.

 

Opening his first present of the day...

An ambulance!

 

Mickey Mouse pancakes, of course!

 

More presents...A Cars watch!

 

And Mickey Mouse of course!

 

And Red, the firetruck from Cars.

 

On his actual birthday we did our presents, lunch at the restaurant of his choice (Wendy's), the carousel, and then dinner at Red Robin.  My mom and grandparents came with us because my grandparents happened to be in town that day.

 

More presents...

 

They sang to him and brought him a sunday...

He did not like the singing at all!

 

But he loved the ice cream after they left.

 

The next weekend we had two birthday parties for him.  We started off by having a friend party Friday morning.  We invited a few of his friends over...Grace, Owen, Eloise, Edie, Jameson, Ellie, Eden, Jack, and Wyatt.  They kids had a good time playing together.  We had a big bin filled with rice and pasta do dig in with construction vehicles.  If you couldn't tell it was a construction themed party.

 

Oh, and we had a couple babies too...Finley and Colby.  Here is Madelynn and Finley playing together.  They are good buddies!

 

He got a little shy when we were singing happy birthday.

 

 

Carter and Ellie...best buds and just five days apart.

 

The next morning we had our families over for his family party.  The theme of construction continued...

 

We bought a Costco cake and then decorated it ourselves.  Jay had fun doing this and it turned out great and exactly how we imagined it!

 

Great Grandma with Madelynn

 

We said no gifts from his friends for that party but of course we could never tell a grandparent not to get a gift!  So more presents for this three year old...

 

 

I loved celebrating our big three year old!  A fun day on his actual birthday and two party celebrations.  Carter deserved all of it!  Birthdays are a great way to celebrate life and this little boy is the light of our lives! 

A Cute Birthday Girl

Thought you needed at least one picture of this sweet girl on her birthday.  This is her cute little flirty smile and head tilt that she does.  More pictures coming very soon but first I want to blog about Carter's third birthday. So hopefully in the next day or two I will have Carter's birthday parties up and ready. 

And she's a one year old...

Our baby girl turned one yesterday!  I am still a bit in shock.  I just can't believe how fast a year can go by.  We are so in love with this little lady.  She has blessed our home immensly.  I think most people wonder how they will love a second child in the same capacity as the first and I will admit that I was one of those.  When I was pregnant with Madelynn I was overcome with joy and deep love for this child I had never met but I would think about Carter and my love for him and wonder how I could split my love with him and another baby.  That is one example of God's love that He has given to us.  I know that I could never love my two kids the way that God loves them but He has given me the ability to love them in a great way and I am just as madly in love with Madelynn as I am with Carter.  I can't imagine my life without either of them and feel richly blessed that God chose me to be the mama for these two precious kids.  And my love for Madelynn grows every day I get to watch her grow.  She impresses me and amazes me each day.  She really is filled with joy and I pray that she will always be this way.  She is one of those little girls who just shines.  Her smile brightens her face and makes everyone around her smile.  And she offers up smiles ALL THE TIME.  Most of the time she can't look at someone without smiling, even if they aren't looking at her.  And she is a flirt!  Her newest thing is to smile this huge, somewhat cheesy smile, tilt her head down by her shoulder, and pull up her shoulders to give you this cute, shy, silly, flirty smile.  It melts me!  She is a happy girl.

She is fun and silly and loves to show that all the time.  She LOVES being thrown up in the air by her daddy.  He can swing her around, up in the air, down to the ground, and back up again and she laughs a great happy belly laugh.  She loves to wrestle and be chased while crawling away from us.  I think crawling after her while she crawls away is one of my favorite things to do because she crawls away laughing hysterically.  There is nothing I love more than hearing that beautiful laugh and I will do pretty much anything to hear it.  She also loves to be a stinker while we are changing her diaper.  She just has a blast trying to flip herself over onto her tummy while we hold on tight with all our might to get her diaper on and her pants back on.  She just laughs and laughs.  It drives me nuts but she is having a blast.  As annoying as it is I love her silliness!  She loves her brother and loves to be where he is.  If he is playing in his room, she always crawls in there after him.  He isn't always the nicest to her but she takes it and loves being with him.  She smiles at him with pure adoration in her eyes.  It is precious.  She does this with her daddy too.  I always want to be holding her when daddy walks in the door from work because she begins to shake her whole body and squeal and smile like a crazy girl.  As soon as he is in reaching distance she dives from my arms to his.  She even once chose him over me :(  I was at the church coordinating a wedding reception and Jay brought the kids down so I could see them.  I picked her up out of his arms so excited to see her and she immediately turned around and reached for daddy.  Broke my heart and filled my heart with so much joy all at the same time.  Thankfully her love seems pretty even for mama and daddy right now.  She does still want me a lot of the time too. 

She is nowhere near walking.  She practically runs while she is crawling, she is so fast but is barely even taking steps when holding onto furniture.  She can and has taken a few sideways steps on the furniture but that is about it.  And forget trying to walk with her while holding her hands.  She hates it.  She pulls her legs up into the air and refuses to put them down and then will even start to whine and fuss if we try for too long.  The funny thing is that parents learn their lesson after the first kid.  I look forward to her walking but I am also not in any hurry and will not be trying to push her.  She will walk when she is ready.  I know that because she is a stubborn and determined little girl at times.  I have no idea where she got that from! ;)

Oh, praise Jesus, our sweet, not so great sleeper is finally sleeping through the night!  We have had a couple months of greatness at night and I am so thankful for that.  She usually goes down around 7 and sleeps until between 6 and 7, nurses, then sleeps again until 8 or 8:30.  Naps are still touch and go.  Some days we get two great naps from her and other days it is a battle to get her to take one nap.  Today was one of those days.  I tried for an hour this morning to get her to take a nap and all I got was a lot of crying and screaming.  She has this new scream that she loves to show off in bed.  Wow, is it awful!  The first few times she did this lovely scream, I went running in to see if she was okay.  It sounds like she is in horrific pain...it's super fun.  I am always hoping she is teething so that I have an explanation for her awful nap days.  I stopped here in this blog post and then took her to the doctor for her one year well baby check and found out that she is for sure teething right now.  Dr. Wilson looked in her mouth and showed me two molars coming in.  Only one cavity of one of them is through the gums and two are through on the other molar.  That is why she has been screaming before going to sleep.  She has even been waking up once in the middle of the night the last few nights and I am going to assume it is all because of those two molars.  Her doctor also said she is about three months early for molars.  My little overachiever :)  He is 100% confident that her molars are the reason she has been struggling with sleep.  I believe it. 

At her one year appoinment, just two days after her first birthday she weighed 16 lbs. 13 oz.  This puts her in the 9th percentile.  We came up a little from the 2nd percentile at her nine month appointment! She was 27 3/4 inches long which was also put her in the 9th percentile.  This came down a little from the 12th percentile from her nine month appointment.  Her head circumference was 44 cm which was the 25th percentile.  She is super healthy, just itty bitty.  I love her itty bittyness!  Dr. Wilson said she won't worry about her not walking until her 18 month appointment.  So we have six months to get her walking and I am not the least bit worried about that!  It will happen :)  She is in 6-9 month clothes and size 2 diapers.  I just love picking out cute clothes for her and dressing her up in adorable dresses for church with headbands and cute shoes to match. 

She is really pretty easy.  She plays well, sleeps well (unless teething), puts up with Carter pretty well, eats great, nurses great, rides in the car without any issues, goes to people pretty well, smiles at everyone, does great when she's away from us with grandparents or other babysitters, and is all around a pretty happy girl.  She has her sassy and needy moments but mostly when she is extremely tired, sick, or teething.  She did not start out this way though so we are thankful that she has mellowed out and become the happy girl that she is. 

She loves dancing.  When the music starts, she starts moving.  She loves looking at books and has been found just sitting by the book basket looking through books many times.  She loves pulling her shoes and headbands off and play with them while smiling at me.  It's almost a smile that says, "ha mom, you are so silly to think I am going to keep these things on me."  She loves her grandparents and is so happy to see them everytime.  And she loves her blankie!  When I pick her up out of her crib she is either already holding onto her blankie or she is reaching for it and grunting to make sure I grab it before walking away from the crib.  She crawls over and grabs it all the time when she is playing in the living room or will just crawl over and dive down on top of it and snuggle. 

Third times a charm...maybe the third time I get on here to attempt to finish this blog I will actually be successful.  Madelynn had a hard time falling asleep tonight.  Her nose is a little stuffy and I am assuming her two molars coming in are still bugging her, so I went in and rocked her for a while tonight.  It was so wonderful.  I was singing to her and she just laid in my arms and stared at me while I sang.  It was a very sweet time with her and made it all okay that she had been screaming in her crib just minutes before.  And now she is out!  She just needed some time to unwind and snuggle with mama. 

As I was thinking about wrapping up this blog I was thinking that I should add a list of some of the things she got to do in her first year of life...
She's been on an airplane to fly to Iowa. She has been up in the Space Needle and on a duck boat ride all around Seattle.  She's been to the zoo, on the tram at OHSU in Portland, and played in the snow in Iowa.  She has been to two San Francisco Giants baseball games and on the cable cars in San Francisco.  She has been swimming in California and to the Oregon coast multiple times as well as the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  I know there are a few more but I am drawing a blank.  I hope her second year of life will include some great experiences for her too!

Madelynn Grace...
We love you so much!  You are so incredibly special to us!  You bring us joy every single day and I am blessed to call you my daughter.  I hope you always have the joy in you that we see today!  God made you incredibly special and I know He has amazing plans for your future.  And we can't wait to watch...just not too quickly because we kind of like you at this age right now and I don't want you to grow up too fast.  We love you baby girl!

 

     

You mean, being a mom isn't easy?!?!?!?!?!

There have been a lot of hard parenting days in the last few weeks.  And then today I was reading a blog by a wonderful woman who I have never met and lives across the country from me.  Yep, I am a blog stalker.  Don't judge me!  I enjoy reading about life from women who are trying to do their best raising their kids but aren't perfect and who love the Lord.  It encourages me.  Anyway, this mom today was talking about what a perfect mom she was before she had kids.  I have had those memories come flooding back to me many times as a mom.  All those times that I judged other moms has made for some very guilty feelings lately. 

I remember saying things like...
My baby will never sleep in bed with us...
Kids shouldn't be picky eaters...if their parents just make them eat healthy stuff as a baby they will just grow up liking everything...
I will teach my kid to be respectful...they will never roll their eyes or stick out their tougue at someone...
My kid will throw one temper tantrum and be too scared to ever do it again...
Just be good parents who discipline and love their kids and they will be good kids...
My kids will not watch tv until they are two...
My kid will sleep through the night at three months.  Sleep train, it's that easy...

Oh boy was I the perfect mom before Carter and Madelynn came into my life.  Parenting is hard!  I feel like we have hit a stage in our parenting that requires a lot of decisions to be made for the harm or benefit of our son.  Do we let him play with toy guns?  Do we let him say "I'm gonna shoot you" with every toy that could possibly be a toy gun?  Is he drinking enough water?  Should we let him watch that movie or tv show?  Should we let him play electronics (mainly the Kindle.)  Are we teaching him everything he needs to know at this age about Jesus?  Do I spank him for that or let it go?  Should we fight that battle or let it go?  Is he watching too much tv?  Are we feeding him healthy food often enough?  Should he have that cookie or cookie number two or three?  Are we teaching him manners properly?  The list could go on forever.

I don't feel like we had to worry about many of these things when he was a baby.  Same with Madelynn.  She is young enough that most of these areas are still not jumping in our face as issues we need to focus on.  But with Carter, they are!  He has started hitting us when he is angry about something.  Did I do something that has caused him to resort to hitting instead of using his words?  What do I do to put a stop to it?  Do I spank him, do timeout, talk to him, etc?  Or is spanking him for hitting confusing to him because it is in one sense doing the same thing back to him?  It is so confusing!  I want him to use his words when he is angry and handle anger the godly way but I am feeling very lost as to how to make that happen.  I want his heart to be right.  I don't just want to fix an issue, it is a heart issue.  I want him to love Jesus and want to do right.  I know...he is three! 

Today at MOPS he stuck his tounge out at his teacher.  To me this isn't that big of a deal because he was just being silly.  Carter thinks it's funny and isn't doing it to be disobedient or disrespectful.  However, when his teacher told him not to do that because it wasn't nice he did it again and laughed.  Now that is a problem!  I talked to him about it right there in front of his teacher and made him tell her that he was sorry for sticking out his tounge and that he wouldn't do it again.  We have since talked about why it isn't nice to do that to people.  So now the question is...what do I do when he does it again?  I want him to be a pleasant, nice, kind boy. 

Carter used to NEVER throw temper tantrums in public...like seriously, never.  In the last few months we have had multiple tantrums in public.  These are the most awkward and uncomfortable situations to be in.  There are times that in the moment it is impossible to change his behavior until we have just left the public place and dealt with it later.  Jay says he will never take him to the library alone again.  It was that bad!  I am always wondering if this is normal or if I have some major issues to be working on in my sweet three year old little boy. 

Even his amazing Sunday school teachers have mentioned a couple of times that he sometimes has a hard time obeying.  And everytime I go into his class to take him to the bathroom it turns into quite the battle right in front of his teachers.  Why can I control a classroom full of students pretty easily and yet I keep having these wonderful (just kidding) moments with my son?

Being a mom is extremely humbling!  I thought I knew it all and I have learned very quickly that I have soooooo much to learn!  I have learned though that I am doing my best.  I accept the challenge to raise this boy to be the best man he can be.  And I have learned that I must rely on my Heavenly Father much more than I do now.  It isn't up to me to teach my son everything on my own.  I am thankful for God's grace and his forgiveness when I mess up.  And I am thankful for a husband who is partnering with me to raise Carter.  We love him unconditionally and want the very best for him!  I need to let go of the feelings of inadequacy and the feelings of embarressment when he isn't perfect.  I am not perfect and have no right to be embarressed when my son isn't perfect.  I am always worried about what others think about my parenting and I need to LET THAT GO!

The moral of the story is...
Parenting is hard!  I hope that I am not being judged as a mom and I need to always give every parent the benefit of the doubt when I have the urge to judge another fellow mama.  Most of us our doing our best! 
  

My Carter man is THREE!

Three years...

How did we get here?

These last three years have been the best years of my life.  I keep thinking about turning 30 in a few short months and it freaks me out a bit.  But then I remind myself that I am exactly where I always hoped I would be in life at this point.  I have a wonderful husband who loves me unconditionally, a super fun and sweet three year old little boy, and a beautiful baby girl.  What more could a girl ask for?

 

Carter has immensely blessed and enriched our lives.  Putting into words what this little boy means to us seems almost trivial.  He is amazing.  I know I am his mom and most moms think their kid is amazing but I am seriously beyond blessed to be the mom to this sweet boy.  I love him so much. 

 

 

I mean, holy moly...this kid is cute :)

So here is what our Carter man has been up to in the last year...

 

He went from a toddler to a kid.  He literally changed overnight.  At two I could write a list of words that he could say.  Today, he can say every single word in the English language ;)  If he doesn't know what something means, he asks.  He wants to know what every word means!  And he has ears of...well, something that has amazing hearing...

This kid hears everything we say, even when we are trying to talk quietly in the car.  "What's you say mama?"  That is what I hear all day long.  And if he doesn't know what it means he says, "what's that mean, mama?"  He hates not understanding something.  He speaks in full sentences and can have very normal conversations with everyone.  It has been very fun hearing him talk and tell stories.  We love hearing him tell stories.  Right now though he also loves to say "you tell me" when we ask him about something.  Me- "Carter, what did you do today?"  Carter- "You tell me."  He says that a lot even when he fully knows how to answer the question.

 

A few of Carter's favorite things...

He loves his blankie!

He could eat Cutie oranges all day long.

He loves his morning waffle.

He is obsessed with anything construction, ambulances, fire trucks, tractors, and trucks.

He loves the movie Cars and can't get enough of Mater.

He loves his grandparents and talks about them all the time.

He loves his sister and talks so sweet to her.

He still loves reading books.

He is in his happy place when we are outside and could be out there all day if we let him.

He still can't watch enough of Mickey's clubhouse which he calls "Minnie."

He loves going to Sunday school and adores his two teachers, teacher Nora and Mrs. James.

His new favorite game to play is hide and seek and loves to hide from us.

He likes getting coins and putting them in his bank.

He loves riding the little rides at the mall and things it is unbelievably special when we actually put the money in the machine so that it moves.  He is just as content sitting on them.

He still loves stuffed animals and rotates through many of them for his favorite at the moment.

He loves riding his bike and playing out in the garage.

 

A few of Carter's least favorite things...

He really doesn't like taking a nap and doesn't most days :(

He doesn't like being told that it is time to be done with something that he loves.

Being told to stop playing so that he can go potty.

He really doesn't love getting his picture taken.

 

The big excitement that happened this year (just a few weeks ago) is that he is now potty trained!  He isn't perfect at it yet but he is doing so well!  He wears pull-ups for nap and diapers at night but during waking hours he is in underware all the time, even when we leave the house.  We have been so proud of him!  He handled this transition so much better than the last big transition, switching from his crib to his big boy bed.  What a nightmare!

 

He weighs about 33 pounds, has blue eyes which are here to stay, and blond hair that is starting to darken up.  He is friendly and personable at times and shy and quiet at other times.  He is feisty!  He NEVER stops talking!  I am not kidding, this kid can talk for hours straight.  He has quite the imagination and has started pretending to do things and will even talk as two different people.

 

Such a good big brother.  He really loves her and is so good to her.  He has his moments where he isn't super great to her.  Especially now that she likes to be doing whatever he is doing.  She just gets into his stuff and wants to play with all his toys and he does not like that!

 

The next picture was taken on his second birthday.  I am amazed at how grown up he looks now compared to just one year ago.  He just looks like a baby.  And his hair is so light. 

 

 

This would be the biggest thing that happened to him during the last year...he became a big brother.  And he is handeling the responsibility very well!

 

 

He is silly.  So silly.  He loves to make us laugh.  He is also unbelievably stubborn!  He is trying our patience often and really digs in his heals when he wants or doesn't want something.  Carter is helping us learn how to be better parents for the rest of our kids.  Ha!  We are trying things and then trying new things when those don't work.  And then trying even more things when those don't work.  I used to always hear the terrible twos are the hardest but many lately have been telling me that three is harder.  The two's weren't overly easy and it doesn't seem to be getting any easier as we hit three.  I know his personality will lend itself to being a great leader someday but right now we are trying really hard to help him learn to use it for good and not evil ;)  He has moments of superior obedience and other times of complete disobedience and naughtiness!  I'm pretty sure that is normal but still emotionally exhausting.

 

 

And he is always so cute when we go and check on him after he falls asleep.  He is often in very funny positions. 

 

 

There are so many more things I am sure I am missing!  It is hard to sum up an entire year in a blog post.  We love this kid and love how much he is teaching us and bringing joy to our lives.  I hardly even remember what it was like before Carter was in our lives.

 

Carter man...

Yes, I still call you Carter man.  I really don't know why but it is habit.  I cannot even believe how much you are growing up.  You are so fun and bring such joy and excitement to our lives.  We are so proud of you and who you are becoming.  You are a special young man, Carter and we love you so much!  You have made our lives so much better!  We are so blessed to be your mama and daddy.  You have started calling me mommy lately which feels like such a milestone to me.  It means you really are growing up.  We love you Carter!