Sand, Steam and Pisco, and Pandas

Just a few things that appeared during our weekend.  We had a really fun, very busy, and somewhat productive weekend!

Thomas won tickets to the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, which is a three-day food and drinking extravaganza that runs from Friday morning through Sunday evening. We only participated in a small fraction of the events, but really enjoyed everything we did. We got a sitter and went to a dinner Friday night, but on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, we got together with the other Fowlkes' and each gender got an afternoon away.

Thomas' company also hosted a festival on a property they own on Saturday, so we also did that.

And Carter performed at church on Sunday.

And I did some much needed shopping.

And I made a lot of baby food.

And John learned to crawl.

That doesn't seem like TOO much in words, but really, it was a crazy weekend. So I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Friday Night: Food & Wine Festival (FWF) dinner at JCT Kitchen.
Where I met my new favorite cocktail: vodka, lime juice, maple syrup, white pepper and a tequila floater.
Seriously. So, so, SO good.  

Saturday morning: Festival at Riverview Landing
Playing in the sand ring
Carter says, "Mom, is there anything better than sand?"

Exploring the river
Anything to distract Carter from his demands that we take a dog home with us
(it was a dog-centric festival)

Saturday afternoon: the Fowlkes men head to the FWF
Ashley and I take four children under the age of 6 to the mall
All children survived and were allowed to ride the train
John opted to skip it in favor of milk with mom
Ashley and I actually manage to shop (briefly)
And we only buy one thing that's exactly the same (pretty amazing for us)

Thomas sends a photo of his point-of-view from the FWF
The "wine" part of the name is a bit misleading
There was wine, but there was also an abundance of beer, bourbon, pisco, vodka, tequila, moonshine, etc etc etc 

Later that afternoon, the cousins had some good outside fun

While I got busy steaming a LOT of veggies in preparation for smushing them for John
I'm pretty sure that this was my last batch of mush
By the time John eats all of this, I think he'll be on to all finger foods!

When Thomas returns from the FWF, the glass around his neck is empty

He takes a nap in the midst of the chaos
(remember: 4 children under 6 running about)

It really doesn't seem to bother Thomas

He did eventually perk up in time to eat again

Sunday morning: We're all up VERY early for Carter's last choir performance
(in my opinion, a big mother's day scheduling failure on the part of the church)
Carter did great, in part, (I think) because his ability to choose whether or not to be part of the choir again next year was predicated on him doing well. So he did. And I suspect that was his final performance.  

Saturday afternoon: Our turn at the FWF
Happy Mother's Day to us! 

Thomas and Park weren't able to do this on Saturday, so we got our glasses waxed by the Maker's Mark people 

Can we do this for Mother's Day every year?
Seriously. 

He Crawls!

He Makes Me Laugh

A couple of recent funnies from Carter...

A few weeks ago, we were eating ice cream and I told him about "brain freeze". After dinner tonight, he was eating one of our homemade strawberry popsicles when he gripped his head and said "Oh no! Mental cold!"

This evening, Carter was telling me that a friend in his class has broken his finger. I ask "How did he break it?" and Carter responds by bending his finger back, "Well, someone said it was like this." Next he bends his finger to the side, "But someone else said he did it like this." Okay, I asked the wrong question. So then I ask, "What was he doing when he broke his finger?" Carter says, "Hmm. I think it hurt really bad. He probably had to go to the clinic!" Silly me. Always asking the wrong questions.

Carter sees me writing this, asks what it is about, and asks me to add, "I hope that he gets better soon."

Recent Photos

John's first morning to pull up in his crib

Carter climbing to the TOP of this wall at Stone Mountain

My boys, with pretty classic expressions

Home!

Rachel recently did a nice post detailing her work travels, along with what her family was up to. I left town last Monday with aspirations to do a similar post about my 6 day, 5 night trip this week (my longest since John was born). Alas, much to Carter's chagrin, I neglected to take any photos, so I'll just say this:

I was in San Diego all week for the annual Boys & Girls Clubs of America national conference. I presented, networked, had a lot of meetings, went to a Padres game and saw several famous alums accept hall of fame awards (a few from this year: CC Sabathia, Ne-Yo and Cuba Gooding Jr). At one point, I snuck out to get a much needed massage. I returned home with the most milk I've hauled to date, and the San Diego airport didn't even screen it! I'm very happy to be home, and I'm also happy that John didn't start crawling while I was away. He did, however, start pulling up!

Observed via Baby Monitor

Give it about 15-20 seconds to get going.

So glad we didn't learn this lesson the really hard way

Here's a photo of Carter with the candle that he made last weekend at a fun event with his Cart Cart. Carter and I had a nice, candlelight mother-son dinner last night after John was in bed and while Thomas was out. Thanks, Cart Cart!

I didn't take a photo of tonight's attempted reprise, in which Carter sneaks the candle and a match into his room, uses the (somewhat rough) chalkboard paint on one of his doors to strike the match and then throws the match into his trashcan after he fails to light the candle.

Pro: Our boy is smart and resourceful

Con: He could have seriously burned himself

Pro: He comes to his parents when he gets scared/in over his head (he reported said incident to us right away - his room still smelled strongly of struck match)

Con: He could have seriously burned the house down

Pro: The matches are now stored where he can't reach them -- as easily (and in the future we'll only buy strike on box matches)

Thanks, Cart Cart.

Look who tied his shoes!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

John Recents

John is doing well. He has three teeth now (all on the bottom) and we suspect a couple more will be making an appearance soon. Probably on top. 

John can't get into a sitting position on his own, but if you sit him up, he can stay up pretty well by himself. It can be a challenge to sit him down, though. He much prefers to stand (which requires someone to hold him) and he does NOT want to bend at the waist.  

He's getting up on his hands and knees, but doesn't care for it (especially because he only goes backwards), so he tends to get where he needs to go by using a barrel roll or his vocal chords. 

He continues to love to eat, but, given that he's a member of this family, he much prefers feeding himself to being fed. So, he really loves eating puffs (baby crack) and has developed the fine motor skills needed to feed himself very quickly. He's up to about 85% accuracy. We're also trying other easy finger foods. Tofu seemed to go over pretty well recently. 

Spring Break

Carter spent spring break in Arkansas with his Mama Helen and Daddy Phil. In order to get him there, we met up in Tupelo, Mississippi at the beginning and again at the end of the week. I took the first shift to hand Carter off, taking John along to Tupelo, and staying overnight at a hotel with mom and Mimi. Thomas did the pickup, driving both ways in one day. 

The week before spring break we all came down with something (all except Thomas). As a result, Carter spent some time at urgent care the day before his trip to make sure he was okay to travel. 

When we stayed overnight in Tupelo, Carter got to show of his swimming and John got to go for his first swim. He seemed to like it. 

Mama Helen and Mimi were both happy to get to spend some time with John. 

Carter had a great time with his grand parents. Here, he's been mini golfing. 

At the playground in Hot Springs Village. 

More mini golf fun