John at 16 months

Here's a little video of John. It's sort of a day in the life. Except I didn't get any tantrums on camera. And those certainly happen.

Thanksgiving at the Beach

Thank you to mom and dad who invited us to spend thanksgiving with them at Fort Myers beach where they had rented a condo. Dad flew to Atlanta and drove down with me and the boys on the Saturday before thanksgiving (mom was there a week ahead of us with her sister and mom). Thomas flew down on Wednesday afternoon and we drove home as a family. I was sick, so that wasn't ideal (also not ideal: I gave the sickness to my parents who have been enjoying it ever since), but it was gorgeous and the boys had a good time.

Creating our own taxonomy for shells

Totally awesome hamster ball in water thing

Carter's road food of choice (except for the last hour) was Subway, for which we were all grateful.
John had a deconstructed sandwich.

John didn't love the sand, but it also didn't bother him too much. He kept putting handfuls in his mouth. 

Amazing sand sculpture competition down the road from where we were staying

Our sand castle with a monster nest at the entrance. The monster guards the castle. 

There was much putt putt.

Dot COOOOOM

Carter has discovered the wonders of the internet! You can access anything you want simply by typing the name of that thing and adding ".com" at the end!

It started with Peter Brown, illustrator of the book Creepy Carrots. He visited Carter's school this fall and Carter really, really liked him. Carter also heard that he had a website. That night at our house, it sounded something like this:

Mom, we have to go to peter brown.com!
peterbrown.com
peterbrown.com!
Just GO to peterbrown.com!
Dad - can we go to peterbrown.com?
peterbrown.com!
peterbrown.com
peterbrown.cooooooooooom!
just go to peterbrown.COOOOOOOOM!

For the record, his website is peterbrownstudio.com.

When we were driving home from thanksgiving, Carter really wanted to stop at McDonalds. We told him that we didn't know where there was a McDonalds on the way home. So he said (with a "duh" attitude) "just go to mcdonalds-near-coventry-road-dot-com"!

Since then, Carter has started trying to navigate the web on his own, as, clearly, his parents are too slow. Recently, we came upon the computer to find this...

Can you guess what he was searching for? (Hint: it wasn't cookie cakes, and he confuses "ch" with "ck")

Girl Trip: Sonoma Edition

Girl trip 2012 was attached to a business trip of mine that took us to... wine country! As usual, we had a  great time. I'm sure you can imagine: wine, food, shopping, bocce...

Drinking wine, facetime-ing with Joo's brother and his fiancé and friends (right after he got engaged!)

At Ridge Vineyards (pretty)! They make wine there (yum). 

At Dry Creek Vineyard where Mandi drank her first rose (pink wine)!

At brunch with mimosas (which are made with sparkling wine) 

At Benzinger (where they make...)

Bocce at Imagery (where we drank...)

Big thanks to Stubbie for so many great food and winery tips!

Growth

As you can see in recent posts. Carter is missing quite a few teeth! He also continues to be the tallest in his class. There is one boy in his class and on his soccer team this year that is almost as tall as Carter, and I think they were both very glad to have each other!

John is also growing! Carter has always been quite a bit above the 99th percentile line in growth charts, but John has ping pong-ed between being right on the 99th percentile and being more in line with Carter. At his 15 month checkup, he was off the charts. He's climbing these days (yay) and LOVES to be outside!

Writing

Carter has really started writing lately. In the past, it has been VERY difficult to get him to sound out words and write things down, but he's really started to enjoy writing. He seems to understand that writing is a method for communicating his thoughts...

"Keep out" (posted on his bedroom door)

"Lucas and Carter friends forever" (on the back of one of his books)

This last one needs a little setup. Carter was enduring a punishment. He was not allowed to watch TV or play video games. It was just Carter and me at home. Thomas was coming home to swap with me shortly, so that I could go in to work. I was on a conference call and so wasn't available to talk to Carter. He knew this, so he started slipping me notes.

Translations:

1. Dad is gonna be here in an hour.
2. When is this gonna be over so I can watch TV and play video games?
3. I love John.
4. I definitely love you, Dad.
5. (directed at me) I love you sort of. 

Fall Soccer

Carter has played quite a few team sports over the last few years: soccer, t-ball, basketball. And they've all pretty much gone the same way. Carter primarily wants to wear the uniform and eat the snacks, but has no interest in playing the sport. So we stopped signing him up for sports. Which, of course, made him want to play more. We cut him a deal with t-ball this summer. He could play, but he really had to play or else we'd stop going. Also, we wouldn't sign him up for  a fall sport if he didn't participate in the summer sport. Naturally, he made a very good effort in t-ball this summer, so we signed him up for soccer. I actually think the change in his attitude was due more to him being developmentally ready than it was to our deal, but either way, he now seems to (mostly) be as interested in playing the sport as he does in donning the uniform.

Carter's soccer team this fall was the very BEST team we've ever been on! It was really fun for Carter and for us. There are several reasons for this:

1. We already knew the coaches and more than half of the team members (previously, we've been randomly assigned and didn't know anyone).
2. The team practiced and played games at a school that is just down the street from our house, so no messing with driving and parking.
3. The practices were on Friday nights, so we didn't feel the pressure about getting home and getting homework and dinner done by bedtime. 
4. The weather was perfect for every practice and game.
5. Carter really improved his soccer skills! 
6. The coaches were so great. During the first practice, Carter and his friend David found a stick after practice and several of the boys on the team really wanted to keep it. One of the coaches took it home, painted it gold, and made it their "team stick" it came to most games. 
7. Because the practices were on Friday nights, and walking distance from our house, I found myself with a sippy cup of wine or beer, chatting with parents I know and like on most Friday nights.

I think we're going to have to give up sports for good now, because I'm pretty sure we won't have it this good ever again!

The team (pictures, thankfully, before we lost Carter's jersey)

Post-season party on election night

Team cake

Halloween

We were lucky to have Mama Helen visiting over Halloween. She continues to be Carter's costume supplier. Last year, Carter decided on November 1 that he wanted to be Captain America this year. And he stuck to that plan all year long! John used Sammy's hand-me-down Mickey Mouse costume. But everyone thought he was a ladybug. 

Check out Thomas' costume. He wore that to work all day. 

Carter and Mama Helen made a pumpkin cake using two bundt cakes. 

For the second year, we did trick-or-treating with some of Carter's buddies from school

Crazy Fall

So, you may have been asking yourself, "What's been happening with the Fowlkes since mid-October?". Okay, you probably haven't, but if you had, you couldn't have found out here on the blog. And I probably wouldn't have returned your call/text/email. It's been crazy! I traveled almost every week this fall and work would have been extremely busy even without all the travel. Plus, the fall is always busy with school/sports activities for kids and Thomas' work travel has picked up some, too. 

Quick sidebar rant: The week prior to Thanksgiving, we had 3 daytime events at Carter's school for parent stuff (the kind of stuff that is optional but you know your kid is going to be sad if you aren't there) along with about 17 other things (okay, that is an exaggeration, but it felt like that!) that had to be done for his school (volunteer sign ups, fundraiser stuff, etc), and another 3 daytime events at John's school (which is DAYCARE, so everyone that sends their kid there WORKS). This week happened to coincide with my Tuesday return from a 6 day trip to California (4 days work, 2 days play) and Thomas' Tuesday departure to California (4 days) and the kids and my departure for Thanksgiving vacation the following Saturday. In total, Thomas and I saw each other for 18 hours over a two week period, and we slept/laundered or packed for most of that.

Everything is good, but there just isn't enough time in the day (or night). I haven't had time to take care of many of the basics (Carter was overdrawn in his lunch money account by about a week's worth of lunches), so nice-to-do stuff like blogging also fell by the wayside. 

In any case, I'm going to get caught up over the next several days!

Pumpkin' Patchin' 2012

Our 5th year at the pumpkin patch, John's second (but first where he wasn't asleep!)

C's first year to try the pumpkin slingshot (and the corn shooter, not pictured)

MY first ride on the cow train