But I Just Wanted a Mustache!

So yesterday afternoon while I'm cleaning up dishes, Brooks comes out of the bathroom looking like this and says "Look Mama.  I have a mustache!"

Not gonna lie.  I was speechless.  I was so torn between yelling at him for smearing whatever that black stuff was on his face and applauding his initiative and creativity that I did nothing ... at least for a minute.  Finally I asked "What's on your face?"

To which he replied "A mustache!"

Yes, I see that.  What is the black stuff on your face?

A mustache!

(sigh)  Ok.  But where did the black stuff come from?

The garbage.

Then I became a bit worried.  Until I remembered that I had thrown away an old mascara that morning.  Apparently he found it in the garbage, opened it and proceeded to apply his mustache.  And when I asked why he put the black on his face he said ...

"But I just wanted a mustache."

Guess I can't argue with that.

Saturday Adventure: Pumpkins!

This last weekend, we drove out to Valley Spring, SD (or is it in Iowa?  I don't know) to a farm called Garden of Weeden'.  I had heard about it from  few friends and since we didn't have any pumpkins (and didn't have anything to do) we made the 20 minute drive to the farm.  It was really a low key place - but they had a bunch of pumpkins and a ton of produce!

Carter kept calling the pumpkins "ball ball".  I guess it's close enough :) 

Then inside the produce barn they had a ton of little gourds.  I mean, a ton!!

Each of the boys picked out a few little pumpkins and I grabbed about 25lbs of acorn and butternut squash.  Our whole family loves squash, so I'll put a bunch in the freezer for the winter.

Then on Sunday we let he boys paint their pumpkins.  We thought about carving them, but let's be honest, it's a whole lotta work for us and not that much involvement for them.  So, painting it was.  Yes, Carter tried to eat the paint.  Yes, Brooks eventually covered most of his pumpkin in black paint (despite my urging him to use "bright" colors) and yes, we had a great time!

check out the tongue!

The end result?

Carter's on the left.  Brooks' on the right.

our mini pumpkin creations

Brooks D. Anderson, Attorney at Law

Let me set up this scenario for you .....

This morning Brooks was walking through the living room and kicked his blocks across the floor.

Me: Brooks!  Please don't kick your toys.

Brooks: Don't kick my toys?

No.  Don't kick your toys.

Are balls toys?

Yes.  Balls are toys.

Can I kick the balls?

(sigh)  Yes.

So I can kick my toys?

I have a feeling this boy may have a future in law.  Or as a politician.  Or at the very least, the captain of the debate team.  I hate when I'm legitimately outsmarted by a three year old.  Guess I need to choose my words more carefully.  And for those wondering, I ended the conversation with ...

Don't be sassy!  You need to be a good listener.  Don't kick your blocks.

He's too smart for his own good.

Healthy Again

Oh. my. word. this last sickness that went through our house was ugly.  When we've had a tummy bug in the past, it'd lasted 24 hours, tops, and then it's done.  And it usually only hits one member of the family.  This one started with Carter, then made its rounds to Brooks and Chris.  (I, fortunately, never had the full fledged puking ... just an unsettled tummy for a day.)  It started last Tuesday and it wasn't until Monday (seven days later) that everyone was starting to feel normal again.  The puking usually lasted less than 24 hours, but then came icky diapers and um, other toileting issues, extreme fatigue (as in, my 3 year old who no longer takes naps, taking 3 naps in one day) and achy-ness.  No fun.

I do believe that everyone is on the mend, but we're playing it safe and staying pretty quarantined for the rest of the week.  If this illness was what I think it was (Rotovirus) then you should consider your kids contagious for 10-12 days from the onset of diarrhea.  So no playgroups.  No Wednesday night church.  No library.  Nothing.  We're bored.  We're going stir crazy.  But we're healthy ... and being proactive in keeping others healthy too.  Because based on what over half of my friend on Facebook are saying, this nasty ugly sickness is going around.

So what's my reward for cleaning up puke and poop for nearly a week?  Well, just the satisfaction of being able to care for my family and nursing everyone back to health.

Oh, and this pie.  This delicious, made-from-scratch pie from the Cookie Jar (::drool::), bought by my generous and very appreciative husband.

I guess this does make the 12 extra loads of laundry I did seem not so bad.

Watch Me Grow: 13 months

Yes yes, I know.  I totally skipped the 12 month update.  And it was never my intention to do monthly updates past a year, but since the whole month of September literally screamed past me not allowing me time to post an update, I feel I need to finish off Carter's first year (or so) with this.

Carter has grown and changed so much in these last two months, it's hard to remember what happened when.  But I will do my best.  I will highlight in blue the things I know are new to him just this last month since he's turned one.

This was at a friend's birthday party.  Isn't he cute??

Eating:

• Carter still loves to eat, but he's becoming a bit more discerning about his food.  He used to shovel anything (literally, anything) into his mouth.  Now he's starting to develop preferences.  For instance, he loves breads and grains and cereals.  Carbs.  Who doesn't, right?  He still eat his fruits and veggies just fine, we just make sure to limit the amount of starchy foods we put on his plate to keep him from filling up on just that.
• Carter nurses a handful of times a day.  Usually right away in the morning, before nap, post nap and at bedtime.  And sometimes an extra morning nursing session makes its way into our day.  Sometimes I'm annoyed at how often he nurses still, but other times I try to remind myself that this is just a season and to try and enjoy these times together while I can.  Soon he'll be off and too busy to snuggle with me.  Plus, with the winter month coming up, I know it will help keep him healthy.
• Carter pulls my hair when he nurses.  That does annoy me.

Sleeping:

• Carter's nap schedule hasn't changed.  He still goes to sleep around 1 or 2pm.  He used to sleep a solid 2-3 hours every day, but sometimes now he'll only take a hour and a half nap and he still does ok.
• Night time sleep also hasn't changed.  But that's not so great.  I'm really ready to start sleeping a solid night through.  He goes to bed around 8pm and he'll usually wake around 3am to nurse, and maybe again at 5 or 6.  The good news is then he'll usually sleep in until 8 or so, but I'd prefer to have him up earlier for the day and sleep the whole night.
• Carter has slept through the night once.  Just once.  One night last week (on September 26 to be exact) he went to bed at 8pm and slept until 6:45am!!  It was amazing!  Well, sort of.  My nursing body wasn't used to him sleeping that long and I kept waking up thinking he'd be up at any time wanting to eat.  So I guess it still wasn't good continuous sleep, but now I know he can sleep that long.  The only trick is how to get him to do it again.  Hmmmmm.......
• Carter's bed is still in our room.  Thankfully he sleeps awesome in his bed (and not in ours) but we're hoping to eventually move him into Brooks' room.  But again, that whole night waking thing is holding us back from doing that.

New Discoveries:

• Books.  This topic really deserves it's own blog post, so I won't say much here.  But I will say that Carter.loves.books.  Totally loves books.  And it's so cute to see him toddling toward us with a book in his hand saying "book book".  I can never resist.
• Pots and Pans.  Every kid at some point in their lives totally disassembles the pots and pans cupboard. Carter is no exception.  He pulls everything out piece by piece, throws them all on the floor and then climbs in the cupboard.  It's a fun little fort, apparently.  The funny thing is that Brooks can't stand the mess, so when Carter is done Brooks comes in and puts everything away.  Works out nice for me.

• Shoes.  Carter love shoes.  We often find him carrying them around the house.  And when I tell him we've leaving, he'll (sometimes) walk to the back door, pick up his shoes and tap his feet with them in an attempt to put them on.  Then he'll pick up Brooks' shoes and hand them to him.  So helpful.

New Abilities:

• Standing.  One day as the boys and I were playing on our front porch, Carter just stood up.  He wasn't holding on to anything.  He just stood up ... right in the middle of the porch.  I was super impressed.  And he seemed fairly impressed by himself too!
• Walking.  Carter took his first "real" steps on his birthday.  How fitting.  He loved it!!  The week or so leading up to his birthday Carter was crabby crabby crabby.  And now I'm convinced it's simply because he wanted to walk and couldn't.  Once he became mobile on two feet, he was a much happier boy.  Each day after that he took a few more steps, walking more and more.  And about two weeks after his birthday he became a full time walker.  He thinks is great being able to get around while holding stuff!  And since he's still so little, it's absolutely adorable to see him toddle around.  Now he's really steady on his feet and can catch himself when he trips up a little.  I'm so impressed.
• Hugs and Kisses.  At random times Carter will toddle over to me, throw his arms around my neck and then give me a kiss.  A big, slobbery, open mouthed kiss on the cheek.  And I love it!!!  Sometimes he'll give you a kiss if you ask, but most often it's on his own terms.
• Mama and Dada.  We officially have names.  Carter can both say and correctly identify Mama and Dada.  And it's the best thing being woken up in the morning to a little boy cooing my name :)
• Signing.  We've been working with Carter on his sign language for the last several months.  In August he really started picking up on it.  He could sign more, all done, and dada.  
• Signing.  Since his birthday, Carter has added even more signs to his vocabulary.  In addition to the above, he can sign Mama, eat, sleep, nurse, puppy, shoe, book, tree, fishy.  Now, all of these signs aren't performed perfectly and some of them kinda look the same (shoe, book and more all look like clapping.  Tree, fishy and all done all kind of look like waving)  But the great thing about being home with him all day, is that I can figure out what he's saying.  It's awesome being able to communicate with him.
• Talking.  More "words" are making their way into Carter's vocabulary.  It's of just the beginning sounds of the word, but when I look at what he's pointing to or holding, I usually know what he means.  In addition to mama and dad, some common words are buh buh (book book), duh! duh! (duck duck), bah bah (ball ball) and bbbrrrrmmm, bbbrrrmmm (car).
• Animal sounds.  The cat says "mow mow", the sheep says "baa baa", the cow says "mmmmmmm" and the puppy says "oof oof".  The puppy is my favorite.

When Brooks was born I remember being nervous about having a toddler.  I had very little experience with kids that age and had only heard aweful things (Terrible two's anyone?)  But I'm finding that I LOVE this age.  Carter's personality has come out so much in the last few months and he's an absolute blast to be with.  He loves to laugh, he loves his family and he still loves cars.  He's learning so much and I love watching his mind work as he processes new things.  And I'm sure every parent says this about their kids, but Carter is so smart.  He picks up on things very quickly and I'm constantly amazed at what he can do.  I'm thankful that God has blessed our home with Carter James and I look forward to watching him grow.

The family that pukes together ....

... is quarantined in their house together.  Doesn't really have that romantic ring to it, does it?

Early Tuesday morning I woke up to Carter spitting up (or so I thought) in his bed.  He had nursed an hour before and it's not unusual for him to spit up (just take a look at all my stained shirts for proof), but when the "splash" was audible ... I knew it couldn't be good.  And thus commenced our day of Carter puke.  Which to be honest wasn't all that terrible.  He'd nurse and then spit it all back up.  It was just a large amount of spit up.  And surprisingly he didn't cry much.  He was just really really tired.  Took two long naps that day.  Finally that evening he was holding down a little breast milk   My biggest fear with pukey sick is the dehydration, so I was really happy that something was staying down.  We sat in the recliner together.  Him attached to my boob, me watching old Julia Roberts movies.  All in all, not too bad.  However, him waking every hour that night to nurse was terribly exhausting.  All I wanted to do was let him cry himself back to sleep so I could sleep, but I knew he needed the fluids so we nursed.  And nursed.  And nursed.

Yesterday he was holding down fluids, but had no appetite and was still really lethargic.  And last night he actually slept for more than a hour at a time.  In fact he slept from 7pm until 5am.  And come this morning he was pretty much back to himself.  Except for those awful awful  poopy diapers.  Oh, I can't even describe to you the smell.  Then starting last night and today I have had this crampy tummy ache.  Not nauseous and probably all in my head, but I was pretty wiped out today.  Probably my turn next, I figured.

Nope.  Wrong.  Next came Brooks.  I went upstairs around 3pm today to get Carter from his nap and when I returned Brooks was crying saying "I spiiiit uuuuuuup".  Sure enough, he puked.  In his lap.  There was more to come and I'll spare you the details, but now Brooks is full blown sick.  Can't keep anything down, sick.  He's upstairs sleeping now, but every 1/2 hour or so he wakes up dry heaving.  I feel so bad for him.  It seems worse than Carter's case.  When your three year old looks at you crying saying "make my tummy feel better"  I just want to magically make it all better.  I've prayed over him, rubbed his back, cleaned him up and have changed his clothes and bed sheets several times, but other than that there's not much I can do.

And to top it all off, now Chris is complaining of a stomach ache.  Probably the same crampy thing I still have but since he has a much more active gag reflex than me, it looks like I'll be on puke duty alone tonight.  Motherhood.  It really is the job you never punch out from.  I'm just anxious for my family to be healthy again.

Oh, and after doing some looking online, I suspect we have a case of Rotovirus going around.  Fits all the symptoms.  And several other people's kids in town have it too.  And guess what?  It's contagious 10-12 days after the onset of diarrhea.  So it looks like we really will be quarantined together.