Crash

File this one under parenting strategies.

I got tired of Carter constantly running and crashing into me this evening (his normal physicality exacerbated by the snow day stir-crazies). So, I pulled up some Dave Matthews Band and put on Crash Into Me. I told Carter that he was only allowed to crash into us when he heard the word "crash".

It succeeded in significantly decreasing the number of times Thomas and I got bowled over. Even more so when the rest of the random song selection played. He may still be listening to lyrics for "crash"...

Our Little Negotiator

We've always loved to give Carter choices. It was particularly helpful through the toddler years for him to feel that he had some control. We'd provide him with several options that were all agreeable to us but he got to make the decision.

Recently, he's started to try to work the system. Last weekend, we were at a restaurant, and Carter had gotten out of his seat. He wandered over to my chair and I told him to go sit down. He started to head back to his chair, but then turned around and came back to me to say, "I need two options." And in the subsequent days, he keeps trying to up the number of choices we give him, thinking that whatever he wants to do will surely be presented, if he just has more choices! "I need three options; I need five options..." etc...

I have to admit that I've been knowingly training him up for this since he was a baby, and there is a part of me that loves his growing evil genius!

New Year's Eve

We had 10 adults and 4 kids for a fun new year's eve at our house. As per usual, only the kids' fun got documented (but that's probably better on New Year's, right?).

Christmas 2009

Here is a short (~2 minute) video of Carter's Christmas morning, followed by a few snapshots of the day. We somehow managed to get virtually no photos of any of the adults present. But the kids are cuter anyway!

What Santa brought

Fun goo that Carter got in his stocking (took less than 8 hours for Thomas to lose it with the goo and throw it out!)

Carter's pile o' presents (not as bad as it looks... i even wrapped up socks and underwear because he like to open presents so much)

Carter's awesome play tent from Aunt Linda

In my new boots, his new jeans, his new t-shirt (covered with his new pajama top) and toting the beloved spiderman umbrella (took him less than 5 hours to break said umbrella, but T managed to put it back together)

Hangin' with Anna

Sammy is not as excited to be held by Carter as Carter is to hold Sammy...

White Christmas or Bust

This afternoon, after playing with toys Santa brought, raiding his stocking, opening gifts, reading his letter from Santa, etc., Carter looked at Thomas and me quizzically.

Carter: When's Christmas going to be?

Parentals: ... Um... Today. Today is Christmas, Carter.

Carter: But there's no snow!!

Christmas Pajamas

My family always had a tradition of opening one present each on Christmas Eve. And that present was always new pajamas. Last year, I got Carter and Thomas matching pajamas, which Carter LOVED. He still makes Thomas wear his whenever Carter puts his on. My only issue with Christmas pajamas is that I don't want them to necessarily be Christmas-y. I want to be able to wear them year round. So, this year, I went a slightly different route and got all three of us coordinating, but decidedly non-Christmas-y, pajamas. We did a short video of the pajamas for you.

Christmas Eve

We had a nice Christmas Eve, filled with family traditions. Thomas had to work a bit this morning, but then we went to a movie (The Princess and the Frog - cute, but about 15 minutes too long for Carter). After the movie (and a short nap in the car), we went to church. During one church-y song, I looked down and realized that Carter was singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to himself. That's his favorite Christmas song this year, due, in no small part, to the fact that it's pretty much the only Christmas song for which I know all the words! We did dinner and Christmas pajamas at home (more on that in the next post) and now Thomas is off to play his viola in a midnight church service. Happy Christmas Eve!

At Thomas' office

At church, where almost all the Fowlkes' turned out.

Carter waiting, not so patiently, to open his Christmas pajamas ("Oops! I ripped it a little bit! Oops! I ripped it a little bit more!")

Thomas heads off to play at a midnight service

Shy Boy

It's hard to believe that the boy behind "Shake your booty; hit your boo-oo-oo-ty" is shy, but he definitley seems to be, at least in large groups.

For the Thankgiving program at Carter's school, the kids were supposed to dress up as farmers. We sent him to school in a floppy straw hat, and he spent the entire performance yanking the brim of the hat down over his face.

For last week's Christmas program, he didn't have a hat, so he spent the entire performance yanking his shirt collar up over his face. In private, he often shouts his big line from the Christmas program, but in front of the audience, he was just shirt-faced.

His behavior at the Christmas program reminded me that he used to do the exact same thing in gymnastics class earlier this year. He was in a class of 5-6 kids, but ALL the classes warmed-up together (LOTS of kids and lots of activity). He did well in the class itself, but during the warm-up, he'd just stand there with his shirt over his face.

For his next performance, I'm making sure his costume has a hat -- or a mask.

Jingle Jog 2009

Thomas ran his second Jingle Jog 5K last weekend. This year, Carter joined him for the Elf Run (a terribly organized 50 yard dash for young kids to run with their grown ups).

Bronwyn was there to run it with Carter.

It was the coldest day of the year so far, which Carter did NOT enjoy.

But, apparently, it wasn't too cold for ice cream...

Gingerbread House

This year, I decided to try my hand at making a gingerbread house from scratch. Carter helped with making the gingerbread and with decorating the house.

At first, Carter didn't understand that we were making a three-dimensional house. We decorated the pieces before I started to assemble the structure, and he kept referring to each piece as either being "my house" or "your house".

When I got the four sides up, he seemed pretty disinterested. And a little miffed that I was using "his" house pieces.

But when I put the roof on, he got it. He exclaimed, "Thank you! Thank you, Mama! Thank you for my house!"

Here he is with the final product. I can't believe it's still standing!