Fashion Statement

Carter has taken to dressing and accessorizing himself lately. Here are two of his ensembles.

Christmas Program

Here are some photos of the Christmas program at Carter's school (he's the tall one in green in the middle) and the much more important post-Christmas-program snacks.

Phipps Santa

We took Carter to see Santa at Phipps Mall before Christmas. This is the Santa we had to make an appointment to see back in October. It was really nice to not have to wait in line. It would have been even worse that Carter HATED Santa if we'd invested a lot of time waiting to see him! He threw a fit when we tried to get him to sit with Santa.

We finally calmed Carter down enough to get a picture, but he would NOT sit on Santa's lap. Thankfully, there was room for me on the bench.


Once Carter got his candy cane, he perked up. And tried to show Anna the ropes.

Jingle Jog

In December, Thomas ran another 5K - the Jingle Jog. Apparently it was very cold and very hilly. But The Varsity provided chili dogs after the run, so it was worth it.

Sleepover

In December, Carter and Anna had their first sleepover at our house. Anna was an angel, but Carter gave us a rough night. Figures! They mostly had a very good time playing -- crawling all over the house. The only tense moment between them was when Anna was playing with her panda ("Standa") and Carter was playing with his panda ("Theodore"). Anna decided she'd rather have BOTH pandas, thus the frown in the first pic.

Another New Years Pic

The only post-New Year's Eve pic that I took. Oops. But it's a good one, right?

Carter, Stubbie and Shannon, headed out on the town

42 inches

If you are 42 inches tall, you don't have to take a parent with you on the rides at the zoo. And if your parent wants to ride with you, they have to pay.

I discovered this yesterday, when I took Carter to the zoo (in the cute new overalls he's sporting below). I noticed this because Carter happened to stand next to the sign, and his slightly messy hair hit the 42" mark. I've since measured and discovered that he's only 41.5" (in shoes) when his hair isn't so poofy. But still. I don't think they really WANT kids that are under 3 going on the train alone. I checked growth charts, and a six year old girl in the 5th percentile could still take her parents on the train for free, but on a bad hair day, my two-and-a-half year old couldn't?!

What's the deal with using height as the determinate? Where money is involved, I get that they probably don't want to use age because it would entice folks to lie. So, I don't really have a better solution to propose. I only know that my little boy is going to be very sad someday when all his friends are playing in the balls at Chuck E Cheese, and he isn't allowed in. The upside would be that he's allowed in earlier than his peers, but in many cases that would be dangerous and scary for him now.

For the record, no one hassled us about his height at the zoo, and even if they did, I wouldn't MIND paying the $1.50. But I'm starting to see our future, and I think it might involve a good bit of slouching...

Uncle Patrick (and parents), we're going to need some of your advice in this area over the next 16 years or so!

Pasta!

We got a pasta maker as a wedding gift, but it has rarely been used. Inspired by the Stubblefields and the Stegalius, Carter and I gave it another try yesterday. Carter is strong enough to turn the crank all by himself, so he was able to actually help unassisted.

We made two pounds of whole wheat pasta. Half of which isn't pictured because we had it for dinner last night, simply tossed with a little butter, garlic and fresh parmesan (which was tasty, and allowed us to really taste the whole wheat yumminess)! Here's the stuff we saved for another night.

And, as part of my ongoing quest to create food in colors infrequently found in nature, we made some blue and purple pasta for Carter.

Thanks to a tip from Stubbie, instead of leaving the stuff to dry overnight all over the kitchen (which was my main reason for discontinuing fresh pasta-making), we bagged it in single-serving portions and tossed it in the freezer.

New Years Eve

I can't really remember if we had a good time on New Year's Eve... so I'll let you judge for yourselves from the pictures.

Wake Up Call

When Carter wakes up in the middle of the night - or unreasonably early (like anything before, say, 9am) - he typically comes up to our bedroom, where we pull him into bed and tell him something to the effect of "Go back to sleep. It's still nighttime." If he won't get in bed, we'll send him on a scavenger hunt in our bedroom, asking him to bring us various objects, just so we can stay horizontal for a few more minutes.

Recently, Carter has wised up. These days, he simply comes to the bottom the stairs to our bedroom, flips on our light and calls out "Daytime!"

Thankfully, he only does this when it is actually light outside.

Beach Trip

We had a great weekend at the beach with Cart Cart, Ashley, Park and Anna. I've posted a selection of photos below. A few things I didn't get pictures of:

1. Park & Thomas enjoying their Oyster Shots
2. Thomas attempting to eat 10 saltines in under a minute
3. Our rousing game of Hoopla (What do you call a non-ghost costume for a man made from a sheet? How about a baseball-player candy bar? Sure, easy when you're not under time constraints!)
4. My first viewing of A Room with a View (finally!)

But here are some pictures I did get:

DVD player saves the drive, again

Morning story and beverage time

Carter was the king of the playground!

Cousin bathtime!

Carter demonstrated how to crawl the tunnel, but Anna couldn't be convinced to follow.

Carter's barefoot walk on the beach (I joined him shortly thereafter -- and it was COLD!)

Feeding the birds

Shorn!

Apparently, Thomas wasn't down with the whole long-haired child thing (which seems pretty hypocritical, really :). But I told him he could get Carter's hair cut whenever he wanted. So today, (the first time he was alone with Carter since I said that) they got a haircut.

And, wow. What a difference a haircut makes. Look at my baby-faced toddler on the top and my practically-ready-for-jr-high boy on the bottom! Only taken a week apart. Wow.

Aquarium

Two weeks ago, when my work was still fully insane, Park and Ashley were so kind as to take Carter to the aquarium for the day, which finally gave Thomas a break and allowed me to work guilt-free. Carter had a GREAT time, so, the following week, he and I met up with the other Fowlkes family for another visit to the aquarium. Carter was somewhat disappointed that Uncle Park wasn't picking him up (what a drag to have your MOM go with you), but we still had a fun time.