Potty Success!



We are extremely happy to report that Carter is officially potty trained! We did what I like to call "Potty Training Boot Camp." It is actually a method from a book called "Potty Training In Three Days" recommended to me by my sister and a friend. Basically you go cold turkey with diapers. One day he wears them, the next he doesn't. I can't say it took us a mere three days, but he definitely understood the concept by day three. I would say it took us 2 weeks to really get it (I say "us" because it is honestly a huge learning experience for the parents too!). He hasn't had an accident during the day in quite a while and he is actually telling us when he has to go potty! If you would have asked us after day 1 what we thought of this program we probably would have told you we were nuts for trying it and to keep your kid in diapers forever. But, we stuck with it and by day 3 we did see some light at the end of the tunnel (some). It got better from there and now we wonder what took us so long to do it! We're still working on night time accidents but he's getting there.


We're so proud of you Carter! You constantly amaze us with your intelligence and flexibility. Thank you for teaching mommy and daddy a TON of patience with this!

Coming Soon...

...Carter's little brother or sister! As many of you know, we are expecting our 2nd baby. March 20th is the official due date. We had our 20 week ultrasound last week (I'm half way there!) and here are a few snap shots. No, we are not finding out the sex - what fun would that be? Carter is very excited about being a big brother!

Trick -or- Treat!

We had a fun time with Halloween this year. Carter was into the pumpkin picking and loved helping Dave carve them (although he drew the line at actually getting his own hands goopey). He didn't necessarily love dressing up at first but he LOVED ringing people's doorbells (oh, and the candy too).

Here are the boys preparing the pumpkins for carving. Dave always does an elaborate job with the carvings - I'm pretty sure he loves this holiday more than Carter.

Carter decides he will use a spoon instead of his hands...

Even Shady and Maisy are into the action.

The finished pumpkins: Blue (from Blue's Clues) was Carter's favorite.

Here we are trying on the dinosaur costume. Carter had the "ROAR" down pat but he refused to wear the head piece for longer than a few seconds. He loved his tail and constantly had to check it out and make sure it was still there when he walked around.

We went to a few houses in Mike and Meredith's neighborhood for trick or treating. He was pretty good at saying "Trick or Treat" after someone answered the door and he only tried to walk into a few houses. We practiced our "thank yous" a bunch before we went out that evening but when it came time to thank the first person for the candy he simply said "one more?"

I think this is the first year in forever that the kids didn't have to wear coats - it was 60 degrees!

Latest and Greatest

Shortly after Carter's birthday we switched him to a big boy bed! Overall he did a wonderful job making the switch from crib to bed. We had a night or two of some crying, but now that he's used to the bed he loves it. For now we just have the mattress on the floor but Dave plans to build the actual frame (possibly bunk beds) in the next few months.

Last morning waking up in the crib



New roomy bed





Our little reader! Well, he doesn't exactly read things yet, but he certainly tries. When I ask if I can read him a book he says "I'll do it Mama." He flips through the pages and picks out letters and talks about the pictures. He is a pro at the alphabet and we are working on sounds of letters. We are so proud of how fast he seems to pick this stuff up!





Carter also decided he is obsessed with our tractor. Anytime Dave mentions he has to mow or do anything related to working outside Carter pleads to ride on the tractor. Hopefully this love for mowing will last well into his teen years.








We took a trip to Milwaukee in October to visit Lee, Bob, and Elsa. We played outside, watched baseball, and visited the Milwaukee Zoo. Carter especially loved the train ride at the zoo and chasing the roaming peacocks.

Taking the train ride around the zoo

Watch out peacock!

Riding the carousel

Elsa showed Carter all the cool zoo spots

Hanging out in Elsa's play room

Did you think I'd have an update section and forget to mention the Michigan vs. Michigan State football game?? We had some friends over to watch the awesome game and Carter wore his cool split shirt (which by the way is the same shirt he wore last year - still fits him). All I can say is GO GREEN!!! Way to go Spartans, it's about time you took out those annoying Wolverines, and to do it in the "big house" makes it even sweeter.

Last but not least, we got a fantastic play set for Carter! It was given to us by some friends of the family who have outgrown its use. It's actually the play set from Dave's old house growing up - we know the family that bought the house from Dave's mom and they graciously gave it to us since their boys are all in college. We have to send a huge thank you to Uncle Mark and Grandpa Jernstadt for all the grunt work. It's a fairly big structure and they took it down, transported it and put it back up all in one afternoon. Needless to say, Carter LOVES it, especially the swings.

TWO!

It's hard to believe Carter turned two at the end of August. He is growing up into such a wonderful and intelligent little boy. His personality is very sweet and funny mixed with plenty of mischief. At his two year appointment he was 33 and 1/2 inches tall (25th%), weighed almost 25 lbs. (18th%) and is in great health. He knows all the letters of the alphabet and he can count to 20. His favorite toys are his cell phone, remote control, lap top computer (pretty much anything electronic), and books. We still struggle with getting him to eat, he seems much too busy to bother with that, but he's getting better about trying new things.


We had three birthday parties for him over one weekend:

Party #1 was a joint party with Elsa. Lee, Bob, and Elsa came from Milwaukee, Grandma Baldwin and Grandpa Pries joined us, as well as Great Grandma (Gigi), Aunt Nancy, Cheryl, Abby and Joe. We had so much fun with Elsa and Carter together - they play so well together and it was so nice having Lee, Bob, and Elsa stay with us for a few nights!


Carter is opening his giant dinosaur (complete with lots of sound effects)




Elsa opening her presents

The kids enjoying their birthday lunch at Carter's brand new table (thanks Grandpa Pries!)

Blowing out the candles

Carter actually ate most of his cupcake this year!

Party #2 started at the beach in Grand Haven. We met Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt there and we had a fun morning (once the sun came out!). After some time at the beach we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's house for a nice lunch, more cake, and of course - lots of presents!

Checking out the water

Carter and Elsa loved digging in the sand

Once it warmed up, we couldn't get them out of the water!

More cake!

Opening up his presents






Party #3 was back at home with Grandma Webb, Uncle Josh, Uncle Mark, Deb, Bridget, and Sean. We had pizza and cake and more presents!

Uncle Mark was showing Carter how to dip his finger...

...and then he showed him how to shove frosting in his Dad's face!

Lots of cool presents

Thank you to everyone for helping celebrate his birthday and for all the wonderful presents!

Summer Activities

As you can tell from the heading...we're behind on our postings. I still wanted to show some of these pictures from the summer and yes, his birthday pictures are coming! Excuses aside, here are a bunch of pictures from July and August that we hope you enjoy.

Riding in the "Burley" (thanks Pomeroys!) - he actually loved wearing his helmet.

Playground adventures. He's definitely not scared to try new things or climb up high.



Here we are at Meijer Gardens - the bouncy bridge was very entertaining.

Fountains at Meijer Gardens - we discovered that we should have had him in his bathing suit because he got soaked by the end of the trip.

More fountain fun...

Trying to take apart and put back together the sail boat.

Uncle Mark's house - Mark has lots of fun "toys" for kids, including Carter's favorite - the trampoline! (A perfect excuse to buy a trampoline...it's not for me, it's for Carter!).

Time out, have to bring mom a bug...(gee thanks)

Lots of jumping!

After we tore him away from the trampoline he finally tried out Uncle Mark's cool pool. His favorite things were the water guns on the side.

Sean and Carter playing with the water guns.

Carter trying to shoot Bridget.

More water guns...

And finally, we got together with the Douglas and Hepner families (Paula and Kim from MSU). From left to right: Paula with Grace on her lap, Me with Carter, Logan (Hepner), Isabelle (Douglas), and Kim with Wyatt. We had a lot of fun catching up and watching the kids play!