Boys at Children's Museum

One is Carter in 2008; one is John today…

He is all of these things...

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August/September Carter Fun

He's got style, that's for sure. This was just a normal Friday at school. Normal for us, anyway. 

Having fun with a box; he made this almost all by himself!

The illustrator of this book visited his school, and Carter has been illustrating his own Creepy Carrots ever since. 

Carter lost his second tooth! He lost the first one while I was traveling and the second when I was at Dragon*con (more on that later!)

Artist

A good helper

Carter has become a very good helper in the shop. He helped Thomas with the headboard construction, and then used the scrap as the base for a work of art that is now hanging in the garage. 

Sunday Project

Thomas got motivated this morning to build the workbench he's been planning for the garage. Carter's enthusiasm for the project came and went throughout the day. First, he was wow-ing us with his ability to use a drill; then he was painting his own woodwork (and then he was sneaking back in the house to watch PBS Kids).

Thomas, Carter, Matthew and I all had a hand in completing the workbench today. And we wrapped up the project just before we had friends over for dinner!

Thomas gets Carter ready to "help" with the circular saw

Carter takes a break from the workbench project to paint his wood sculpture

What Carter and Thomas had completed by themselves by the time I got out of bed:

The finished product at the end of the day! (Notice how Thomas and Matthew decided to re-use scrap wood instead of buying shelf brackets? I'm so proud!)

Carter's Impressions of New York City

Carter recently did a new drawing on the computer. When asked what it was, he responded, "It's New York. Where Mama lives."

(Sadly, we can't share the drawing because cousin Anna apparently got a hold of it before he could save it. Picture a very sad boy shutting himself in the laundry room: "She ruined my New York picture!")

When asked if he could re-create the picture, he responded, "No. I don't want to. It's New York. It's just a bunch of big buildings."

When asked to elaborate about New York, he says, "It's only for girls. Only girls go there. It's not for boys."

And that's what he knows about New York.

Snow Day Projects

This morning, in honor of the snowy day, Carter and I made chocolate chip pancakes and glittery snowflakes.

Carter is getting very good at cutting. He cut 24 very good hearts for valentines for his class and he did about half the cutting on these snowflakes (cutting over lines I drew for him in both cases).













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Carter Draws Our Family

Carter loves his Fisher-Price computer games. He can hook it up all by himself and will escape to our office to do his "work" for half an hour at a time (which, if you don't have a 3-year-old, you may not realize is a huge chunk of time).

Last night, called us into the office to see his work. "Look! It's our family!" He had used the art program to make a picture of the three of us. He used the stamp tool to select and make the faces, and then used the stylus to free-hand the bodies (and he even drew in noses).

His picture of the three of us:

The other Fowlkes family as a work-in-progress. (He switched to pink for them. He also gave them arms...)

And the completed pic of (from L to R) Sammy, Park, Anna and Ashley (who is apparently the tallest, in Carter's mind). You can click the photo to see larger.

Putting it back together

We're getting the house back together after the plumbing work we had done. Holes are patched and Carter's room is (mostly) painted and reassembled, complete with new wall stickers, a new work of art (courtesy of Eleanor) and a newly handpainted lamp (by Carter).

Don't Eat Glue.

Add this to the growing list of things I never thought I'd say.

The video is over a minute long, but, in my opinion, it's pretty funny (especially if you watch to the end), and it provides a good depiction of the many personalities of Carter. Also, enjoy listening to me trying to be stern while simultaneously trying to hold back laughter.

(You'll need the sound turned up!)

Kids Workshop

We went to Piedmont Park this morning, where Home Depot was running a kids workshop. Carter (Thomas) made a bird house and got an apron!

Arts-n-Crafts

In the last few months, Carter has become increasingly interested in scissors. A result, I believe, of my frequent summer herb clipping. So, I found him a couple of pairs of kid-friendly (won't cut clothes, won't cut hair) scissors.

This weekend has been pretty gray and rainy, so we've been pulling out all the indoor stops. Since he's been getting better at cutting, I decided it was time to introduce Carter to... the glue stick. He very much enjoyed cutting and gluing, and was very proud of his masterpiece, as you can see.

Playdough

It rained pretty much all day, so we had to entertain ourselves indoors. We made forts, watched movies, and when we ran out of ideas, I remembered playdough. The homemade, salty stuff my mom used to make for us. So I whipped up a batch and Carter was highly entertained!

Question - I've got it stored in an airtight (mostly) ziploc, hoping it will last a few days. Should I refrigerate it?

Children's Museum

Pics from our trip to the children's museum yesterday:

Carter's First Art Project

The Moonbeams room (Carter's room at daycare) did a holiday art project today. Carter's fingerpaint (or, more likely, finger-, hand- and face-paint) masterpiece is below. Surprisingly, he didn't try to eat the paper, but his teacher was quick to point out that this was probably because she was holding it down. Who knew babies could do art so young? Apparently, they strip them down to their diapers, strap them into a high chair and let them go to town.

Yeah, they forgot the "r" in his name, but seeing as how they hand glitter-glued each baby's name on their art, I don't really mind.

And here's a great thing about having a baby - we get to eat the attached candy ourselves!