Faux Father's Day

I'm going to be out of town on Father's Day, and I didn't want Thomas to miss out on having a dad-centric day. So, yesterday, we had a Fowlkes Family Faux Father's Day celebration.

Breakfast in bed

Homemade cards presented to Dad on a homemade tray

Headed off to see a Braves game with Cart Cart

"Happy Faux Father's Day, Dad!"

More Birthday Pics

Here are a few more pictures from Carter's birthday festivities - opening presents the day after his party and on his actual birthday.

He's superman suited AND cowboy booted.

Carter on the upcoming holidays

I really love it when someone else does my blogging work for me. Here's a couple of stories shared by Cart Cart about his evening with Carter earlier this week, with a few comments from me [in brackets]:

While reading the fire engine book Wednesday night at bedtime, about halfway through Carter interrupts and raises a finger in the air, and says, "Let's pause for a moment, while I call my parents." And reaches over for the broken cell phone, opens it, and has an imaginary conversation with both of you. Then he puts the phone down and says, "We can go ahead now."

In the car on the way home, he was talking about a lot of things, and especially that Santa had come that day [for pictures]. He remarked the best part of Thanksgiving is that after that, Santa comes. The following ensued:

Cart Cart: "Speaking of Thanksgiving, do you know what kind of meat people eat for Thanksgiving Dinner?
Carter: Yes.
Cart Cart: What?
Carter: Chicken.

Cart Cart: No, actually it's turkey, like the thing you made in art class today and showed me.

Carter: Do people go out and hunt the turkeys and bring them home?

[Its news to me that Carter knows what hunting is. Last time I indicated that something on his plate was an animal he adamantly disagreed, citing (as if I was crazy) that "It doesn't have eyes!"]

Cart Cart: They can, but they usually just hunt them at Publix at the store, and bring them home and cook them in the oven.

Carter: And after they eat that, Santa Claus comes !!

Clearly Carter has misunderstood my attempts to give him a way to think about when the Christmas season starts. If waiting for Christmas is any more difficult than waiting for Halloween was, we're going to have a long weekend after Thanksgiving - not to mention the month after that!

Thanks again to Cart Cart for sharing!

The Carters' Weekend

While we were in Chicago, Carter had a big time with his Cart Cart. As I understand it, they worked at a soup kitchen, went to Carter's gymnastics and swimming classes, played with the cousins, enjoyed the aquarium, played at Cart Cart's house and ate a LOT of food (at least Carter did, not sure about Cart Cart).

Here's an anecdote that Cart Cart shared with us about the weekend:

"I was, as usual, trying to figure out your TV remote. Carter walked over, said, 'Let me show you Cart Cart -- first push this, then this, then this.' And the $%^# TV came on! It's no longer, 'Are you smarter than a 5th grader,' but 'Are you stupider than a 3 year old?' Looks like that would be a Yes."

(Thanks for sharing, Cart Cart! And, to be fair, our remote is very difficult to use. I'm sure he just got lucky. Maybe.)

Thanksgiving

My, mom, dad and Mimi came in from Arkansas. Park, Ashley, Anna and Sam came for dinner. Cart Cart and Nonna joined us for dessert.

Family assembled at our house for thanksgiving dinner.

I got in some good snuggle time with Sam.

Carter debuted his new Christmas pajamas (along with Mama Helen's boots) after dinner.

First full Fowlkes family photo with the new addition!

Cart Cart's Birthday!

On Sunday evening, we hosted a family dinner for Cart Cart's _5th birthday. I had to smash two photos together to get everyone in the first one, so it looks a little funny! Once again, Carter required party hats. Sadly, there weren't enough hats to go around, so I didn't get to wear one! Darn. Anna probably wishes I'd stolen hers...

Birthday Family Photo

Here's a little family photo of the attendees at Carter's 3rd birthday party. Carter's face is covered in chocolate icing!

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

Spring Training!

In light of the Braves recent losing streak, I though it best to think on happier times in baseball...like Spring Training, when even the Cubs have a chance to go all the way. Dad and Park have managed to wrangle great seats to Braves Spring Training in Orlando for the last many (5?) years and spend one glorious weekend going to Braves games at Disney's Wide World of Sports, Astros games at their spring park down the road, eating steak and Japanese hibachi and generally having much fun without me. This year, thanks to certain logistical fates stepping in (us moving to Atlanta, which is much closer to Orlando than either NYC or Chicago), I finally got to partake of the grand trip. Unfortunately, Park's new offspring kept him from going, but Nanner is better than even spring training. I feel, however, that the tradition was continued with no particular losses..and maybe even a few gains.

Foul/Home Run/Batting Practice Balls caught/recovered: 11

Previous record by Park: 4 (maybe 5)

"Hi, Park." (or Elizabeth or Donna or Ashley)

A jealous work colleague texted me "I hope a foul balls hits you in the ear." This is the return pix-text. (No baseballs or heads were injuring during the staging of this photo)

And we went to a brand new park, Space Coast Stadium, home of the Washington Nationals. While there is a "giant rocket" outside the gate as advertised, the statue of Casey at the Bat next to it was MUCH, MUCH taller.

Thanks Cart Cart!

Right now, I'm in Boston and Thomas is in tech, so Cart Cart is on evening Carter-duty.

How did we ever survive having a child without ready access to doting grandparents??

(And take heart, you far-flung grandparents, you're all scheduled to get your doting time in soon, too!)

St. George Island

We arrived at St. George Island right on time - at 2:30am last night. Thankfully, Carter slept for most of the way. We were happy to see Cart Cart when we arrived, and we were grateful that he got up to let us in in the middle of the night!

It's chilly here, but it's the beach (and we have internet access)! Here are some pictures from our day (which included 4hr naps for Carter and me).

Photo with Santa

For those of you who've been awaiting a picture of Carter with Santa, this is as close as you're going to get:

I've been getting some measure of grief from some of you (who shall remain un-named ;) who think we're grinch-ish parents for not wanting to sit in traffic, fight for a parking spot and force our toddler to stand in a long line to do something he doesn't understand...

I have no problems with parents who do take little ones to see Santa. I just prefer to avoid the mall at all costs, so until Carter wants to go - we aren't going! (We were somewhat hopeful that we'd be able to easily see Santa at our town bonfire and marshmallow roast last week, because I do think Carter would enjoy the Santa getup, but, alas, it rained - of course, we can't really complain about rain these days).

I promise we will take Carter to sit on Santa's lap when he's old enough to get it. For now, you get a picture of Carter on Cart Cart's lap, with a Santa doll. This, he enjoyed immensely.

Baseball Weekend

Thomas' dad spent a long weekend with us for an NYC baseball experience. He and Thomas went to a Yankee's game on Sunday. On Monday, wee Carter, elder Carter and Thomas took in a Brooklyn Cyclones game, and then on Tuesday night Thomas elder Carter and I went to a Mets game. That was the very best because Thomas caught a ball (though I'm pretty sure Moises Alou was throwing it specifically to me... ah, sweet Moises). The Carters had a lovely time together. Unfortunately, we took shamefully few pictures.

Tomorrow evening, Thomas and I are off to Atlanta for house-hunting. We are leaving Carter here with Patrick and Kirstin for the whole weekend! I'm sure they'll be fine, but wish me luck in handling the separation! I've taken longer trips away than this, but Thomas and I have never both been so far away from him at the same time.

More Atlanta Pictures

In these first two photos, you can tell that Carter may have inherited the bad car karma from my side of the family.

First you drive the car...

then you push it.

At the playground with Cart Cart.

Make way for ducklings!