Christmas 2012

Epiphany

Carter, the child who typically asks Santa for random stuff such as "a Santa doll" or generic things like "a fun game", has had an epiphany, here, at 4pm on Christmas Eve. He is churning out new letters to Santa, asking for (so far): a drum set, a violin, a phone and an iPad.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oops

We let him watch A Christmas Story.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Holiday Performances

Experience the boys' holiday performances in under 40 seconds. Carter's is a performance of his after school music program at our town's annual marshmallow roast and Santa visit. He is on the far left in the back row. John is is front and center at his daycare performance.

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.