Kaleidescope

I'm two weeks behind with posting our pictures and events which begs the question how do we ever get all the things done we want or need to get done? I have a list a mile long of things to do and with all of the everyday tasks we do, I'm not sure how I'll ever cut that list down to size!

The 'Great Race'

On March 31st Marc ran his first big race since our marathon in October '05. It was called the Chesebro 1/2 Marathon, but was also deemed the 'Great Race.' Marc said it was pretty tough; I think time has faded his memory of the marathon because he said this 13 miler was tougher than 26. It was a trail run with loose footing and lots and lots of hills for the majority of the race, so that couldn't have made it easy, but it was only 1/2 the distance so really was it harder than St. George? He entered the race with his classmate Jeff (in the red) and Jeff's dad (center). Jeff finished first with Marc about 10 minutes behind him, finishing just shy of 2 hours. Jeff's dad came in a few minutes later. The boys and I made it to the finish line about 10 minutes before Marc finished so we were able to cheer him on, though he was finishing so fast Carter totally missed him--I think he was staring at the ground or something. I was moody and shaken up a bit though as I was inches away from rear ending this big red truck on the 101 on my way to the race. Stupid dirt spill stopped traffic on a dime and there I was in a hurry! Good thing we just got new brakes!

Spring Time in the Rockies

On April 3rd we headed off to Colorado for a house hunting trip. The flight was easy, but made for a long day. Carter has always been good on planes (except for the puking incident in April '05 on a trip to Chicago) and with our trusty portable DVD player and his new movie "Buzz" (Toy Story) we were good to go. Give the kid a little juice and he was happy as a clam. Carter spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa while Marc, Anderson, and I looked at over 20 houses, but a house just wasn't in the cards for us right now--financing was going to be tricky with Marc's unpaid 3 month internship this summer, so we looked at a few apartments and then via Craig's List (what did we all do with out this great tool?) we found this fabulous gated condo complex with a few units for rent by owner. We snagged a 3 bedroom 2 bath for a 12 month period and I think we'll be really happy in it until we can find our own place. The complex even has a pool, hot tub and a gym so we'll all be happy this summer!

Of course we had to meet a Rocky Mountain Spring toward the end of our trip which means it snowed the last 3 days we were there therefore our Easter Egg Hunt was held indoors. Grandma stuffed 164 eggs full of goodies and we had my cousin and his family of 4 little girls over for dinner and the hunt. Grandma even found Cars eggs which of course thrilled Carter. He was pretty good at finding the eggs, too! Of course they weren't really hidden since that many eggs would be tough to really hide. I'm still working on being completely on top of holiday activities, so Carter had to hunt down the eggs only to put his loot in a plastic grocery bag. Sorry, Carter, maybe next year the Easter Bunny will have it together! Anderson slept through the entire flurry of activity which probably turned out to be a good thing so he didn't get stepped on!

Anderson is 7 months!

I'm pretty sure all I've done is blink and the last 7 months have gone by. It has really gone by that quickly! He's eating lots of good stuff now--even the smelly nasty pureed chicken, turkey, and beef. He hasn't quite got the pincer grasp (yes, a technical term I only know because Marc does what he does) but he does find a way to get those Gerber star crackers into his mouth. I'm much more comfortable giving him those than cheerios because they melt so quickly and it's harder for him to choke, though he's done it a few times and I pretty much panic every time. The biggest surprise this month is that he's getting up on his hands and knees, sometimes his hands and feet with his bum straight up in the air, and rocking so crawling can't be too far ahead of us now. Marc (being the pediatric specialist now that he's in his peds class) says it'll probably only take another month before he figures out how to crawl. In the mean time he does get around by spinning on his belly and digging his feet into the ground. Nothing is safe anymore--and neither is he! The other day, Marc left him alone for a second on Carter's bed and I walked in there to find him pretty much hanging up-side-down off the edge of it. Good thing it's only inches off the ground since we don't have a frame for it yet--we've been anticipating our move and buying bunk beds so there hasn't been a need yet! Can you tell from his toothless laugh that he's still a cranky teething boy without any more teeth? Grrr! If you enlarge this picture though, maybe you can also tell that those gums are pretty much white underneath the pale pink surface. Those teeth have to come through somtime, don't they? Though somedays are hard, I feel like I'm able to enjoy our days together much more than I did with Carter at this age. Maybe it's because of Carter that this is so.

Carter

Of course I can't post without giving a few Carter updates. He's such a good little guy, except when he's not! He's decided that naps are for babies and doesn't like to take them anymore, but then he crashes at like 5 and then we can't get him to bed at a decent hour. A few weeks ago he crashed while Marc and him played a computer game. He has become quite the word mimic, too. Just in the last week he's learned shut up, (from a girl at the park who then tried to tell me that Carter had said it first, nice huh?), crap and stupid (both from me--it's lovely when you realize all the bad stuff you do and say when you see your kid do it.) And as you can see in the picture above, Carter just loves to torcher his brother, though Anderson usually just thinks its funny and doesn't quite get that he's supposed to cry, not laugh!

Well, if I forgot anything, it will have to wait. I've been typing and thinking for way too long! Hopefully it won't take another 2 1/2 weeks to get another post up! Love to all and excuse the type-os, I don't have time to proofread and make it perfect. I just love being a perfectionist.