This is what life is all about. . .

Carter was a littly mopey in California, and he's sometimes that way when we are home. He gets really sad and moody, but he won't tell me what's wrong. If we're in the car he'll just stare out the window. If we're in the store, he sits in the cart and just looks super sad. At home, he'll sit on the couch and just sit. It has had me worried for a while and I continue to second guess myself--Am I meeting his needs? Do I play with him enough? Is he getting stimulated enough? I got so worried about it during one of his episodes in California that I had to stop discussing it with my friend who was with us and began to cry. It really does make me feel like a bad mom, like somehow it's my fault, but at the same time, I tell myself, this is not about me and worry that he is depressed (does this happen to 3 year olds?) or has anxiety. All things on my mind.

Also, while in California, Carter and I ended up sharing a bed and many of the nights we went to bed at the same time which offered up a great opportunity to just talk with him and have some Mommy-Carter time. One of the nights (after the situation mentioned above) we were holding hands and talking about his favorite things that day. This is the end of the conversation:

Me: I love you, Carter
Carter: I am happy
Me: Why?
Carter: Because you love me

Are you crying yet? I am and I do everytime I think of this special moment. These moments are exactly what life is all about.

Destination Pumpkin Patch

Last week Carter had his first field trip ever--to Venetucci's Pumpkin Patch. We drove ourselves and met his classmates and friends from the morning class. It was quite an adventure to get there since we were all given wrong directions, but we found the place after a few minutes and a few prayers and when we arrived it turned out they weren't expecting us until two days later so we were almost denied the opportunity to go down to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin (not enough farm staff or something), but again things ended up turning out-- thank goodness. The kids wouldn't have known the difference really but I was glad he got to pick one because here's the unique pumpkin he chose. It's the first one he saw and he is certainly proud of it.

Good News All Around

I can confidently tell you today that the bug I've been fighting is not the baby bug. What a relief! I've visited the doc twice and he is fairly sure I had a stomach bug, something like E coli or salmonella which of course is very frightening when you hear that out loud and a little scary to admit to people because hello, it could paint a picture of a filthy house and filthy habits, but I have neither, I promise. Okay, so I haven't cleaned since I got sick, but my house isn't filthy, yet. I'm feeling about 90% today and just in time because we are leaving Colorado tomorrow (where snow is predicted for the weekend) for California for a week in the heat and sun. We are so excited.

Ode to Carter's Hair

When Carter was a baby he was born with a TON of hair, then he lost every last strand and when he grew it back out every strand stood on end naturally. No matter what I did to it, (and I didn't do much because it was so cute just the way it was) it would spike up and I loved it. It stayed that way for months and months and then when it got too long, it also got too heavy and it hung down near his eyes. Time for the buzz cut. Carter's first hair cut was a sad moment in my life, so sad that I cried for a whole day and Marc had to win me back over with presents. What a dear and patient husband to a vain and emotional wife over a cute little boy who remained cute even with a buzz cut!

Starving a Bug

I've been starving what I thought was the flu all week, but I went to the doctor yesterday and he ran a few tests. The nausea, fever and the rest of the symptoms have lasted too long to really be the flu so he thinks it's a virus because those tests came back negative. As for me, I don't really care what it is, (as long as it's NOT pregnancy, but the nurse said fevers don't usually come on with pregnancy so there is hope) all I know is that I haven't been able to keep anything down all week which has proved a good weight loss plan but has made me hungry for a lot of food. Here's what I want when my stomach can stomach it--

• Chipotle Burrito Bowl--chicken, rice, blackbeans, corn & tomato salsas, and cheese
• Chiles Southwestern Eggrolls
• penne pasta tossed with roasted veggies
• spaghetti with pomodoro sauce (the kind with freshly chopped tomatoes)
• steak with a side of mashed potatoes (the real kind that have a few small chunks left) and steamed veggies
• homemade rolls
• chocolate mousse
• chocolate milkshake

BTW, I made this list of food last night and this morning none of it sounds good. Bummer.

Hello, My Name is Trouble

You've seen that little boys t-shirt at Target, right? The navy one that has a silk screen name tag that you might wear at a convention or a corporate mixer on it and in the space for the name there's the word "trouble." Well, Marc and I don't necessarily believe in buying those for our children because we think it's tagging the child in a negative way, but today I want to run out and buy it for Anderson. I won't, but I really, really want to. This second child of ours has always been a little more demanding of us--he didn't sleep through the night regularly until he was 9 months old, whereas Carter was 2 months. He isn't an errand runner-1 hour or 2 stores max. A few months ago he started this whole arching his back and crying loudly if he didn't get his way--Carter doesn't even do that now. He's successfully climbed out of his straps in the stroller once, but he's tried countless times. And you guessed it, Carter never did that either. (Maybe it was the extended hours in the jogger he spent the summer we trained for a marathon that made him a stroller-patient child!) Anderson's a handful to say the least. And what really makes me want to run out and buy the shirt are his TWO toilet brigades in the space of an hour last night. The first--I went into my bathroom, lifted up the seat, only to find a toy tiger laying at the bottom in the water. Nice. Of course Marc was busy and wouldn't come dig it out so I enlisted Carter to do it and he did, willingly. Then less than an hour later I was vegging on the couch fighting the flu bug that I'd had for two days while Marc was helping a friend get organized to apply to a grad program. Anderson was really quiet so I went to check on him. He was in the boys' bathroom causing no trouble, just digging around in the harmless stuff I have underneath the vanity, BUT his clothing was wet and the toilet seat was up. I put two and two together after the tiger incident. From now on we'll make it as difficult for him as possible--put the toilet seat down and shut the bathroom doors. The problem is we know he can open the doors by himself (we have door handles, not knobs) and if he can do that, he can probably get the seat up by himself, too. So, don't be fooled by his innocent face. He is, as the t shirt says, TROUBLE!

Crisis Averted

Of course I didn't knock on wood after writing that last bit on potty training because I just cleaned up a wet accident!

This week our parking lot is in the process of being resurfaced. The last few days our portion of it has been coned off and we've been parking in any spare guest parking we can find. So yesterday, after picking Carter up from school I parked not too far from our place, by the club house where there weren't any signs posted as to when that part would be closed down. They hadn't even touched our structure yesterday so it should have been days before they coned off the area I parked in. But today, when I trucked the boys out to the car on our way to take a friend to a hair appointment, toy tote that I had removed from the car yesterday to swap out toys and clean them (I keep a bucket of toys in the car to entertain the kids), extra pair of shorts for Carter, bag, and Anderson in hand, the car wasn't where I had left it and there were those neon pink signs everywhere saying that if parked in that area this morning at 8:00, the car would be towed. I literally freaked out, which then threw Carter into freak out mode too. We were both practically hysterical when I finally dug my phone out and called Marc. He of course couldn't come bail me out, he has a large patient load today. So I found a worker near by to ask who was in charge so I could speak to him. He kindly walked me down the drive a ways to 'the boss' who didn't even look up from his work and therefore wasn't concentrating on me so he couldn't clearly tell me who I could call to find out where my car was. Right then, the nice worker mentioned that some of the cars had just been moved around the corner to the portion of the lot they had just finished yesterday and when I looked up I saw our car. Relieved I thanked him for his help and got the kids and myself calmed down a bit. We were a bit late picking our friend up but it was definitely a crisis averted. Regardless, you better believe someone will be getting an earful about the lack of 24 hour notice etc. etc.

Time for School

After mastering the potty, Carter has finally been able to start school. He was on the waiting list for the program that was highly recommended to me at the beginning of the summer but I had only hoped to start in January because one requirement was he needed to be potty trained. I didn't believe it would ever happen, even when about four weeks ago the teacher called to inform me of an opening. You better believe I became diligent in getting him to go after that and his reward became this--if you got potty you can go to school. Seriously, he woke up one morning and just decided it was time because for about three weeks he's done #2 in the potty every day no exceptions. I still have him wear pull ups when we're out, just because I don't know how capable he is of holding it in if we're no where near a potty, but for the most part he stays dry even then.

Last week was Carter's first day and of course, I pulled out the camera. His school is actually held at his teacher's house; he has about nine classmates and he goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30-1:30. They've talked about pumpkins, and fall time, and made stone soup (after reading the book). I think he likes it for the most part, though he remains my cautious little one, and I caught a glimpse of his intelligence the other day when I was early to pick him up and they were on a 'fall walk.' Miss Amy asked what color the leaves were on her neighbor's door wreath and after looking, Carter was the second to answer--"purple." They were a deep red that could have been mistaken for purple. There was only one other kid who was really paying attention enough to answer, all the other kids were just excited to be outside. I also heard him shout out "pumpkins" to another question she asked that I didn't hear. It was a proud mama moment for me and I teared up a little. In my defense though, I didn't cry when I dropped him off for the first day. He comes home with at least one project every day--one being a bird feeder, a piece of bread spread with PB and seeds, that we placed on our balcony ledge, but I think all the birds have flown south because it hasn't been touched.

Forget Alex

The lions are definitely not the stars of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo! It's all about Melman! As far as zoos go, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is a little bit lame and definitely small due to funding; it isn't funded by taxes like most other zoos, though that's as far as I got reading that plaque so I'm not sure where they get their money exactly. We took the boys a few weeks ago when Marc actually spent most of his designated day off (Tuesdays) off. If it weren't for the fantastic hands on giraffe exhibit it would have definitely been a disappointing day. Highlights included:

• playing in the little playground where Carter was actually interested in playing with his brother.
• getting a little closer to the animals than the LA zoo ever allows
• watching the monkeys kiss
• walking straight up hill most of the time pushing a stroller
• witnessing a fete almost worthy of a circus act--a giraffe picking his nose with his super long black tongue (I spent 10 minutes trying to get this captured on camera, but to no avail)
• Carter being so afraid to touch the giraffe, he's clutched to Marc's shirt (see picture)
• Anderson showing up Carter in the same task
• Carter eating wood just like the giraffe (see picture)

Yes, the zoo was small and lame, but the giraffes were great and over all it was fun to just spend time with Dad!

Finally. . .

Anderson's birthday was almost one month ago and I'm finally getting around to uploading the pictures to our computer. We had a small party with my mom and dad and two families that we love hanging out with. Afterwards, Marc and I agreed that we are anxiously anticipating buying a house so we'll have room to throw a party and invite everyone we love here. Two things to note in the pictures:

1. For all my friends in California who keep having boys--all my friends out here have girls. Don't worry, our boys will have wives someday!

2. Ignore my hideous lace curtains--they were here when we got here and there is a covenant in our community that says all curtains seen from outside must be white. Apparently no one knows where to get some decent white curtains because there are lots of lace curtains to be seen around here. Yuck!