More fun with a laundry basket. It's a perfect place to stand to try and find stuff to ask for on the counter: You can also rock it: And dance in it:
Then, you can slide down and rest:

Carter loves to get into my pusrse. It contains endless opportunities for entertainment. My wallet is lots of fun to pull out all the credit cards, business cards, etc...., my cell phone beeps and lights up. I could repvent this by just zipping it, but Carter has learned something new:

Then, he learned how to unzip my pouch of lipstick.

Nothing is safe!

Can I tell you how glad I am Kevin's baseball season is over? This is the most disorganized thing I have ever seen. We had a dilemma. I had a 9-10 mile run yesterday morning, and Kevin had to leave the house at 9:00 for his 10:00 game. I knew my running buddy wasn't going to make it to our team run, so I was afraid I would be with a slower group and not be able to make it home in time for Kevin to leave. I got on mapmyrun.com and figured out a 9 mile run around our neighborhood. This was a HUGE thing because our neighborhood is MUCH more hilly than where we practice, and I wouldn't have my teammates to motivate me along with the water stops set up for us. I didn't want to be selfish and cause Kevin to miss his game.

I was proud of myself for tackling some enormous hills and completing the run on my own with very little walking around mile 8 (my knees were hurting). I made it home while cursing the hills. Kevin left for his game and called me shortly after arriving at the ball fields 30 minutes away to let me know not enough people showed up and the fields were in no condition for playing. I was slightly angry to say the least. Kevin did make it home just in time to take Carter to get his flu shot. When we arrived at the pediatrician, the parking lot was full, and there was a line outside the building. The lady at the check in said there was at least a 45 minute wait. When I inquired if that was for people with appointments, she told me they were not accepting walkins. Of course, I went off on her to let her know how ridiculous this was, and in my job, I can't be late and make people wait. I took the paper work anyway and headed to the back of the line while Kevin hung his head in total embarassment. I figured what the heck, Kevin and I should at least get our shots while there, so I sent Kevinto get the paperwork for us. We waited outside for about thirty minutes while they let one family at a time go upstairs to the packed waiting room. After another 30 minutes, we were finally called back. Carter got both the H1N1 vaccine and the seasonal flu vaccine. Kevin and I received the seasonal vaccine, and I had received the H1N1 at work on Thursday. Hopefully, we will be well. Carter did wake up from his nap today with fever. I'm hoping it was just a brief reaction. If it's not, it's Kevin's turn to stay home.

Anyway, back to the baseball. Kevin had another game at 1:00 today. That was fine. It coincided with Carter's nap time. I cooked a dinner for us and a coworker who juat had a baby, worked on lesson plans, and ironed. Kevin called at 3:00 to tell me they hadn't started plahying yet. The commissioner who plays on the other team was running late and had the gear. I think the other team should have had to forfeit, but that's not how things run with this league. I'm hoping Kevin can find a league that's a little more organized to play for next season.

These are jus the situations from this weekend which are totally typical.

We completed Saturday by going to Pig on the Ridge. It's a great barbecue festival in Ridgeway, just north of Blythewood. We took my parents last year, and coincidentally, Dad had to be in Atlanta the Wednesday and Thursday before this year. We ate lots of barbecue and saw some very interesting sights!

Wow, we have been super busy around here. The new theme of our lives is "Not Enough Time." I'm still training for the half marathon in February, and Kevin just wrapped up his second baseball season. Last weekend, my parents came for a brief visit. They started the weekend by watching me run in the Governor's cup 8K. Here I am before the race: In the crowd at the start line: Coming into the finish: With my running buddy Misty afterwards: The race was great. I am so glad to have met Misty through team in training. She and I have the same pace and have grown to be great friends. I finished the race in 44:58. I was 5th in my age division! I wasn't running it to compete but just as practice. The race ended with a giant hill. I had been running in my very hilly neighborhood the week prior, so when everyone started walking up the final hill, I decided to use it as my opportunity to pass them. Misty did great for her first race ever and finished 13 seconds after me with considerable knee pain. It was great to have Kevin, Carter, and my parents at the finish line!

I was in the living room today folding and hanging Carter's laundry. Carter grabbed part of the pile of coat hangers I had, disappeared, and returned without them. Next, he grabbed his pants I had hanging, disappeared, and returned without them. He repeated this process for the rest of the coat hangers.

When I went into my room to find them, this is what I found:

What a sweet boy! We have kept a coat hanger on our TV armoire as a makeshift lock. Carter thinks this is where we hang things. I just hugged him and thanked him for helping me.

Although Carter wasn't feeling well, we were able to make it to a few houses for Trick-R-Treating. Carter loves wearing his "woof woof." Getting ready to go:
Hanging out until Mom gives us the ok:
Now, we can go:
Visiting our next door neighbors, Mimi and Poppy:
Although, we only went to 3 houses, they did a great job of filling Carter's pumpkin. He had a great time running through the neighbors's yards and getting some energy out.

We have had a rough few days. When I got home from running on Saturday, Carter was still sleeping. Around 9:00, I decided to wake him up. He was burning up and hoarse. Carter had a fever of 100.7. It went down pretty quickly with Tylenol, but I called the weekend clinic for his Pediatrician. After waiting for over an hour, I was told he was coming down with something but she didn't know what. She went ahead and did a Strep test which came back negative. She told me to go back in on Sunday if he got worse.

Sunday, he sounded worse, so I called the doctor right after 8:00. They were already out of appointments for the day, so I was told to take him in on Monday if he wasn't better.

After his nap, he sounded even worse, so we decided to go to the after hours clinic. (I'm thankful we have many options) I dreaded going, especially with all the crud going around. I had told myself that if we got there and the waiting room was full, we would just leave. Amazingly, there was no one in the waiting room. We were out of there in 20 minutes, but we were told we had just missed the crowd. Carter has croup. The doc prescribed some steroids. I stayed home with him today, and he is sounding much better. He also can't understand why we won't go outside to play with his ball.....poor boy.

I LOVE going to the pumpkin patch. Now that we have a Carter, I have a better reason to spend more time there and take pictures!

Carter thought the wagons were much more fascinating than the pumpkins:

I steered Carter into the tent set up for pictures. He was way more into playing. Doesn't he look like a boy instead of a baby?

Carter loved the basket of little pumpkins. He would say "ball" and throw them.

Carter with our pumpkins:

The very-hard-to-get Family Shot:
(Thanks to the kid making faces behind the photographer!)

Meals are no longer very pleasant in our house. For breakfast, we usually give Carter a Nutrigrain bar, but often he prefers to eat our breakfast too.



Yes, he is spoiled rotten!

Carter marched his way into our closet, pointed at his dog costume hanging on the top shelf, and said,"woof woof" until we took it down and put it on him. I'm glad to know he shouldn't mind wearing it for Halloween.

Carter's No-Fail Method to Getting Comfortable:

1. Collect as many blankets and pillows as you can find
2. Place everything on the sofa where you want to sit
3. Try out your spot
4. If it isn't good enough, look for another pillow

5. Snuggle up next to Dada

We are learning early to not let Carter make too many choices when getting dressed.



Yes, those are socks with his sandals!

Carter has a funny obsession with laundry baskets. If he sees one, he has to get in it.
If we are carrying one, we have to put it down, so he can get in it and ride.

Carter thinks my large LL Bean bag is just awesome.
He can load it with the toys he wants to play with, and drag it to any location in the house. When he gets there, he can sit in and play.
It also make a great seat for a snack.

Check out flickr on the right hand side. I just added pictures from July until now.

This is my big boy who turned 18 months old last week! If there are tears, it's no big deal. He is learning to throw some wonderful tantrums. These tantrums include rolling around on the ground, getting on his hands and feet and banging his head into the floor, and rolling around more to get to wall to bang his head. I just like to tell myself this is a sign of his being highly gifted, and he is just frustrated from not being able to communicate.

We took pictures today. It was crazy. Carter did not want to sit still, and when he did, he looked serious while he inspected the photographer's camera.

We did get a few with him smiling.


After, we changed him into his Halloween costume. He thought it was more fun to slide down the back drop repeatedly. After, he would say, "uh-oh!"

(We did edit Kevin's hand out of the picture)

We switched back drops thinking this would help, but Carter was just not interested. I don't blame him. I didn't like the columns either.

Our trip to Camp Greenville ended up being very nice. The weather was cool up in the mountains, and it was nice to be away from school. We did different group activities. My favorite were a hike to Showerbath Falls. The kids walked behind the waterfall.

On our same hike, they slid down a large rock.
It was cold that night (lower forties), but I loved it. After some chaos, an extremely sick student, our electricity going out, and twice as many girls on my side of the cabin than I should have had, we were able to get up and get ready early enough to hike to Pretty Place to see the sunrise.
It was definitely worth it!