2011 Recap - April - It was much more exciting

  

Carter turned 3 and had 2 celebrations!  (Yes, I made the Brobee cake!)

 

We atttended our first Easter Egg hunt

 

We went to Raleigh to celebrate Easter with Kevin's family

 

Carter got his first black eye from running into the counter

2011 Recap - March

 

I'm guessing March wasn't too exciting

I can only find pictures of Play-Doh

2011 Recap - February

 

Carter and I flew to New Orleans where I completed my 4th half marathon and got to share my world of running with my sister.

2011 Recap - January

 

It snowed....a lot. 

We got a week off of school

I turned 32

Things out of the realm of my imagination  before I became a mother:

#4  I would have to tell my child, "We don't put kitchen utensils on our privates."

Oh my goodness!  Today is just another one of those days that proves I was not meant to be a stay at home mom.  It was the first official day of my winter break, and I had an endless list of errands to run and things to do.  I woke up with Kevin at 6:00 (that was an extra 50 minutes of sleep!), convinced myself to get out of bed to help get Carter off the school, and went upstairs to wake him up.  I noticed he was very hot.  Sure enough, he had a fever of 101.  I was thankful he was sick on a day I didn't have to take off.

So, Carter had no idea he was sick.  Here is our day:

1.  Carter used all 3 of his toothbrushes and mine while I am drying my hair.

2.  He rubbed my spatulas all over his face.

3.  He ran out in the parking lot at Bed Bath and Beyond

4.  He played with the skeleton at the chiropractor

5.  He rolled on the floor and growled at the pediatrician.

6.  He ran out in the parking lot at the doctor

7.  Get to the pharmacy and find out their computer system is down along with the rest Northeast Columbia, and no prescriptions can be filled

8.  Come home and let the booger talk me into watching TV instead of taking nap

9.  Tell Carter if he gets off the couch, he will go upstairs

10.  Carter gets off he couch

11. I threaten again (ok, I know that was bad of me)

12.  Carter gets off the couch.

13.  Take Carter kicking and screaming upstairs while he yells "I sorry"

14.  Put Carter down for a nap

15.  Take a nap

16.  Woken up by Carter at the top of the stairs telling me he didn't sleep and isn't sleepy

17.  Yell at him and tell him I will be up to get him when I wake up

18.  Carter continues to talk to me

19.  Go back to the pharmacy

20.  Get home and decide to bake

21.  Carter has to be between me and everything I am doing

22.  Decide to hang ribbon over the pantry door to hang up Christmas cards.

23.  Carter steals my step stool numerous times all while waving a flag in my face

24.  Carter closes the pantry door with me in it and says, "Little Pig, Little Pig, Let me in."

25.  Carter waves flag in my face some more. 

26.  I start sweeping

27.  Carter waves his flag around my trash pile

28.  Carter chases Tiger around the house with the flag.

29.  I text Kevin that we might be pledging allegiance to Carter's a**

30.  Mom calls

31.  Carter is between cushions and the back of couch

32.  Neighbor calls

33.  Carter picks up the other phone to listen in

34.  Carter refuses to clean up

35. I tell him he is taking a bath and going to bed.

36.  Carter furiously kicks and screams telling me he will clean up.

37.  Get Carter in the tub and quickly bathe him

38.  Carter tells me he doesn't want me and wants his daddy

39.  Leave Carter in the tub to wait for Kevin to get home

40.  Hear the doorbell

41.  Neighbor there with cookies right after his wife left message telling me he was a the door

42.  Call neighbor back to tell her I got the cookies

43.  Carter gets our of tub on his own screaming bloody murder

44.  Neighbor quickly gets off of phone

45.  Get Carter dressed, and Kevin FINALLY comes home

46.  Convince Carter to start cleaning up

46.  Relatively uneventful dinner

47.  Carter finishes cleaning up

48.  My sweet child is back and bedtime was relatively easy.

If that doesn't sound rough, I clearly left something out.  I admire stay at home moms and would love to know how all of them aren't alcoholics.  I definitely feel like I failed at being a mom today.

Dear Mom,

If I post today, it won't quite be 4 months between my posts.

Love,

Your slacker daughter

Obligatory Cute Carter Story

#6 Carter didn't want to settle down and go to bed.  Kevin and I were in the office right outside of his room when I stopped him from talking and pretended to hear Elmo calling him from his room.

Me:"What's that?  Elmo, you are ready for Carter to go read to you?  Ok.  He'll be right there." 

Carter (standing next to me):  "Elmo's right here."  And he cracks up laughing at me.

Obligatory Cute Carter Story

#5  I just love it when Carter beats me at my own games.  We usually try to coerce him by telling him, "The doctor said...."  We were shopping at Wal-Mart when he wanted to smell the soap.  I told him to put it back on the shelf.  He replied, "The doctor said I could smell it!"

Things out of the realm of my imagination  before I became a mother:

#3  As a teacher who expects very good behavior in the classroom, I often found myself saying, "My child would never...."  Oh, how humbling it is to be a parent!  Carter is taking swimming lessons with 3 other pre-school age kids.  Yesterday, he wouldn't listen.  He would kick when he shouldn't, he would hang on the rails, he would jump on the steps, and just not pay attention to the teacher.   I could just hang my head in shame.  My child is the bad kid in class.

Obligatory Cute Carter Story

#4 On the way home from swimming lessons, Carter was giving us a list of things that are dangerous. He told us it was dangerous to bite his teacher, his friends, God, and Jesus.

I'm thinking I will have to give Carter's wife a pack of pull ups when he gets married, so he can poo poo.  My child will NEVER poo poo on the potty.  We have offered him anything and everything.  I give up!

Father's Day Weekend Part II

Although, Carter wasn't extremely cooperative, I did get some cute pictures:

 Carter also decided he needed to pick the gorilla's nose:

Father's Day Weekend Part I

 I don't think Kevin has been up to Clemson since I was pregnant with Carter.  He decided to make a trip up there on Saturday.  I told Carter we were going to look for Tiger paws, a cave, and a waterfall. 

We started our day with lunch at Pot Belly Deli.  The Home on the Ranch was just as good as I remembered.

 

After we shopped in downtown Clemson.  then, we headed over to Carillon Gardens where Carter had lots of fun ringing the bell :

From there, we headed over the alumni walk:

We treated Carter to his first ice cream cone and headed north for the highlight of the day.  We took Carter to the Stump House Tunnel and Isaqueena Falls.  He has been talking about caves, so we knew he would enjoy it.  With a flashlight, we made it as far as we were allowed to go in the the tunnel.  After, we headed over the "water faucet."  Carter was thrilled to walk on "Thomas's bridge."

 

We headed up to White water falls, but unfortunately, it really started to rain when we got there.

We definitely had a fun day being "those old people" who visit their alma mater.

It's the Little Things

 

(Old picture from the river a few weeks ago)

After dinner tonight, I decided to take Carter with me to take our recycling.  I promised him if he was good, we would drive by the fire station on the way home.  Carter was very sweet and talked with me the whole way there and back.  While there, he picked up three large rocks and told me he wanted to throw them in the river.  After driving by the fire station (the garage door was open with a fire truck inside!), we headed to the lake by our house where he could throw his rocks.  It amazes me the enjoyment he experiences from something so simple.

Obligatory Cute Carter Story

#3 During the same thunderstorm, Carter looked out the window. He told us he saw the "lightman" who is cleaning.

Obligatory Cute Carter Story

#2 When our night time thunderstorm started, Carter ran into the computer room to tell Kevin and me he was afraid.  We told him to tell the thunder, "Go away.  Don't bother me."  At that point, he replied, "I'm not scared.  I'm just afraid."

My New Obsession:

Pinterest

If you havent checked out pinterest, go now!  It's awesome.

I am turning into an organizing monster in my house.  I think Kevin is scared.  In three days:

• I reorganized our linen storage in our closet
• Organized Carter's books
• Bought large ziploc bags to put Carter's toys together
• Moved and reorganized our kitchen junk drawer
• Thrown away anything I didn't think Carter would miss
• Gotten rid of household items we no longer use
• Reorganized my side of the dresser and got rid of lots of jewelry I never wear

Coming up next will be the garage, pantry and refrigerator. 

If I had an unlimited supply of money and a container store, I would be dangerous!

Not only am I finding a wealth of organizing ideas, I'm finding tons of crafts I would love to do.  Pinterest allows one to organize web links into bulletin boards by category.  Kevin wanted me to name mine "S**t I will never do" and "S**t I will spend lots of money on."  Where is his faith in me?

Things out of the realm of my imagination  before I became a mother:

#2  A person could fall on the driveway and nearly bite their tongue off along with busting their lip and scraping every knuckle.  Thanks goodness the bleeding stopped in time to convince me he didn't need stitches.

SUMMER.......

The possibilities are endless and so is my to-do list:

• Finally clean the grout
• Really scrub the laundry room
• Clean and organize the garage
• Sew
• Craft
• Run at least 20 miles each week
• Try out a group class at the gym
• Keep Carter out of school several days to do special activities
• Plan a baby shower for a friend 
• Go to the beach
• Plan and go on a small family vacation

Today was my first day off after a horrible eventful trip to Disney World with 64 6th graders.  Put it this way, we came home with 2 less than we left with.  I'm glad I wasn't the parent who had to drive 16 hours round trip to pick up my child who got in trouble.  The trip couldn't end soon enough. I was very happy to get home to my family.  I was also very happy for Carter to go to school today, so I could finally relax.  I did get a lot of errands run.  Most importantly, I am caught up on all the Real Housewives shows.