First Trip to the Dentist

Carter had his first trip to the dentist on Thursday.  He went with Dave to Dave's 6 month cleaning, mainly to see what the dentist was like and take a ride in the chair.  They told us this was a good way to get him used to the idea and not think it was scary.  He was having such a good time, the hygienist was able to count his teeth, brush them, floss, and do a small cleaning on him!  He did very well and told me "I love the dentist!"  He also told me he loved playing with the chair, the straw thing, and the water squirter.  A gadget kid's heaven.  Dr. Z mentioned that Carter has an overbite and he might need braces someday, not a huge surprise since Dave and I both had braces.  We'll see, it's nothing we're going to worry about at this point.  We're just glad he did so well and had a great first experience!

Meijer Gardens Christmas Party

We recently went to Frederick Meijer Gardens for their annual Christmas Party.  They have "Christmas Trees of the World" displayed, Santa and Mrs. Claus, crafts for kids, and an enormous toy train running throughout the green house.  We started by visiting Santa, which I realized is more for the parents than the kids.  Every parent in line, including us, was talking their kid into sitting on Santa's lap.  Every kid was crying or trying to back out in some way.  Yet we all kept telling our kids "this will be fun!"  Carter told us he would stand near Santa and that Mia had to go on his lap.  He did o.k., he didn't cry at least, but he barely stood next to him and he wouldn't answer Santa when he asked what Carter wanted for Christmas.  Mia on the other hand took one look at Santa and threw a huge crying fit.  All while we're yelling "Smile!  Look at the camera!"  Yeah right.   After the traumatic Santa station, we did all fun stuff.  We did some crafts, watched the train, and tried to get some good Christmas pictures of the kids together. 

Thanksgiving and a tree hunt

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend spending time at both Grandma Webb's and Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt's houses.  We started the long weekend at Grandma Webb's on Thanksgiving Day.  Uncle Josh, Uncle Mark, Mark's new girlfriend Cathy and her son, Max, Grandpa Mike, and the Keech family were all there helping us celebrate. 

The grownups ate a ton of food, played some cards, and watched a lot of football.  Mia drank some bottles, ate some crackers and puffs, watched us play cards, and crawled all over the place.  Carter ate a tiny bit of food, hid some cards, and did not watch any football.  Instead, Carter and Max, age 5, played together in Grandma's basement.  The boys got along fantastically.  Grandma Webb's basement has a lot of open space and (per Grandma) nothing for a 3 and 5 year old to damage, so they got free rein of the basement.  Cathy and I would peek down at the boys every so often and they were always playing very well and having a blast.  Grandma proclaimed several times that there was "absolutely nothing they could hurt" down there...but of course they found some things to get into.  Including dumping water on the python snake (it's real!) that Grandma Webb houses for the time being for Josh.  I'm no snake advocate, but I think that thing was slightly tortured by the boys.  By the end of the day, the basement looked like what I picture Toys R Us to look like after their Black Friday sale.  Toys everywhere.  But both boys helped pick up everything and we definitely had a tired kid when we got home.

Friday we woke up and headed off the Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt's house for their annual Christmas tree hunt.  We brought our wagon and trekked around the tree farm until we found the perfect tree.  Carter loved helping Daddy and Grandpa use the saw and drag the tree back to the car.  After enjoying some hot chocolate and pumpkin bread, we headed back to their house to put up the tree and have some lunch.

Friday evening Dave played in the annual East Kentwood alumni hockey game.  Dave was on the "old timers" team, who lost by only one point, and the kids and I were able to watch about 2 periods of the game.  Carter loved trying to pick out Dave when he was on the ice.  He also loved jumping around in the bleachers and general non-attentive 3 year old activities.  Hence the 2 period limit for us.  Dave hopes to get Carter out on the ice this winter so he can learn to skate.

Saturday and Sunday we lounged around the house and put up our Christmas tree.  Carter had a lot of fun decorating this year.  We also got out his beloved "singing snowmen" and other various characters that play Christmas tunes and dance around.  Mia seems to love the snowmen just as much as Carter, so Dave and I are already wishing those things were back in the box!  Tis the season.

Fully Mobile

Mia hit the 8 month mark on November 16th and she started fully crawling the same week.  She was moving around backwards and sideways for a few weeks leading up to her 8 month birthday, but until now, she was not moving forward in a real crawl.  It's taking some getting used to for the rest of the family, you forget how quickly they can dart across the room once they get the hang of it.  No more setting Mia in one place surrounded by toys while I check on the laundry...because when I get back, she'll be across the room checking out a light socket or putting her hand in the dogs' food dish.  One time she parked herself on top of Carter's puzzle (while he was doing it) and decided to gum on a few pieces.  Carter's been pretty patient so far and he seems to understand that she is going to be more and more interested in his toys as she grows.  I think he's getting the hang of sharing (at least a little).

She loves crawling over to the coffee table and pulling herself up to her knees.  She hasn't quite made it to her feet yet, but I'm sure she'll be there before we know it.  Anything within her reach is fair game now.

Another favorite is to crawl over to Shady and lie over her back and play with the dog tags on her collar.  Shady actually sits very still and lets Mia check her out.  Maisy has been good with Mia too, Mia  stuck her hand in Maisy's food dish while Maisy was eating and she backed up and waited patiently.  Both dogs seem to know that the kids are top priority and they need to act accordingly.

Other stats - Mia has been excellent with her sleeping.  She goes to bed around 8pm and doesn't wake up until around 8am.  She also takes great naps in her crib.   She has been talking up a storm in the last week.  Lots of "Ba Ba" and "Ga" and other consonants.   She also LOVES eating puffs and crackers and other real people food.  It may be wishful thinking but I think we actually have a decent eater on our hands! 

Conversation with a three year old

Carter and I have some great conversations with each other in the car on the way home from daycare. I get to catch up with him and find out how his day went, who he played with, if he shared his toys, and some other very random topics of Carter’s choice. I love hearing the stories he comes up with (he is nonstop talking the whole way home) and I look forward to our chats every day.

Yesterday, as we passed by the airport grounds, a low flying plane caught his eye and we started talking about airplanes and our upcoming Florida trip to Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin’s house in January.

Me: “Carter, after Christmas we’re going to fly on an airplane to see Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin. We’re going to fly all the way to Florida!”

Carter: “How are we going to do that?”

Me: “Well, we will drive to the airport and then get on the airplane and the plane will fly us to Florida.”

Carter:  Long pause. “When I get on the plane I want to push some buttons.”

Me: “What buttons do you want to push?”

Carter: “NOT the red button.”

Me: “Why? What does the red button do?”

Carter: “If we push the red button, then we will fall to our house.”

Me: “No, nobody will fall out of the plane. We will be safe.”

Carter: “When I get on the plane I want to see some directions.” (Pronounced Dur-ect-chuns)

Me: “Directions? Directions for what?”

Carter: “So we know how to get there. How do we get there?”

Me: “Well, the pilot knows the exact route to Florida and he will get us there.”

Carter: “I still want to see the directions. I also want to go to the bathroom on the plane. They have a bathroom and a sink and a door.”

Me: “You seem to know a lot about planes.”

Carter: “Yeah, I do."

It should be an interesting trip in January! 

Halloween 2009

We had a fantastic Halloween this year, Carter really got into dressing up this year and loved going trick-or-treating.  A month ago when we asked Carter what he wanted to be for Halloween, he told us he wanted to be Wall-E from the Disney Pixar movie.  Not a big surprise since Wall-E has recently been upgraded to the movie of choice over Cars in the past few months.  I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of miss Cars!  I looked on-line to see if there were any Wall-E costumes out there and there were, but they were so expensive and not even that cute.  So Dave gladly took on the task of creating our own Wall-E costume for Carter (I think even if we had the choice of a free Wall-E costume Dave would have wanted to make our own).  I hate to brag, but Carter was THE CUTEST Wall-E ever thanks to Dave's amazing costume.  Carter also really wanted Mia to be "Eva" (or Eve) from the movie, but we had an adorable cow outfit and decided with the cold weather it was the best and most warm option for Mia.

We carved pumpkins on Friday and Carter really enjoyed getting his hands goopey this year.  Here are some pictures of the boys in action, we had a wardrobe change mid-carving since things were getting so messy.

Saturday we went over to the Burke's house to trick-or-treat with Kayley, Tyler, and Drew.  Carter loved trick-or-treating with other kids his age and we all had a really good time walking around their neighborhood (despite the freezing temperature and incredible wind).  Both our kids' costumes were perfect for cold weather so Carter loved running from house to house and Mia didn't seem to mind her stroller walk.

The whole gang, Wicked Witch, Mr. Incredible, Wall-E, Darth Vadar, and our little calf.

Pretty much every person we encountered on our walk made a comment about Carter's costume, both parents and kids.  He was definitely a hit and everyone recognized who he was supposed to be.  It's going to be hard to top this next year!

Wall-E now sits in our dining room...I'm not sure what his fate will be, but for now Carter and Dave seem to enjoy having him as part of our family.  Sometimes I do a double take when I walk by, it really looks like Wall-E is hanging out, ready for me to serve him dinner.  But if I ever hear "EVAAAAA" come from that room, he's out of here.

Stats

Carter and Mia had a dual Dr.'s appointment on the 30th, this was for Mia's "6 month" check-up and Carter's "3 year" check-up.  As I think I've mentioned before, our Dr.'s office is quite busy, especially in the summer, and we got off track earlier this year and since they have to space out shots so many months apart, we really won't be back on track any time soon. 

Everyone is healthy, believe it or not!  (I'm currently knocking on wood).  This seemed to shock both our nurse and Dr. when they asked how we were doing.  Carter went first and he is healthy as can be.  They checked his blood pressure and recorded his BMI and did an extra vision test, none of which we've ever had done before.   I know it shouldn't surprise me that as he grows they want to do more grown-up type tests on him, but he still seems like my baby and watching the nurse take his blood pressure really hit home that he is such a big boy now.  He weighed in at 30 lbs. which is in the 27th% (last time he was around the 12th% for weight so he's gaining!) and his height was 36 inches, 10th%.  I believe the nurse's words were "he's still a peanut."  Carter had one shot and the flu mist.

Mia was second and she is also very healthy.  She weighed in at 17 lbs. 13 oz. which is the 58th% for her age and she is 26.5 inches tall which is the 45th%.  It looks like Mia is right in the middle and hopefully won't be as much of a "peanut" as her brother.  They also measured her head which ended up in the 81st%, I attribute that to mostly to her hair.  She also received 3 shots (none of which were the flu shot, they were all out).  So we have to go back for the flu shot for Mia whenever they get more in...which they didn't know and told us to simply watch the website.  Like I have time to constantly check their website.

Other Mia stats:  she is still on the verge of crawling.  She can crawl backwards and spin around but the forward motion is still not quite there.  She did however start saying "mama" just a few days ago!  Carter started saying "dada" right around 7+ months so she seems to be on somewhat of the same schedule as Carter at this point. 

Milwaukee Girls' Visit

A few weekends ago, Aunt Lee, cousin Elsa, and cousin Claire came to visit Michigan.  Unfortunately, Uncle Bob was tied up at work and wasn't able to make the trip with them.  But we had great long weekend hanging out with the girls and miss them so much already.

   Hanging out in the playroom.

Since we hadn't seen each other since May, we had a late birthday celebration for Carter and Elsa.  Carter received some really cool games for his "Leapster" and Mia even got in on the present action when Aunt Lee gave her an adorable homemade quilt.  It has cute little owls and chicks on it and the colors match her room perfectly.  She loves snuggling with it on the couch with Mommy.

Opening presents.

Mia and Claire enjoying the new quilt.

We loved having so much time to hang out and play together!

Elsa and Carter enjoying some breakfast together.

One of the main reasons for the trip (other than to visit with all of us and catch up) was for Mike Pries and Christina Charron's wedding.  This was also the final weekend for Grandpa and Grandma Baldwin to live in Michigan before heading back to their home in Florida.  Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt came over to babysit the kids while the grown-ups went to the wedding and reception.  We did however take the kids to the first 10 minutes of the reception to get pictures with all the other cousins.  Grandpa and Grandma Baldwin love trying to wrangle in all 9 grandkids for their Christmas card picture and this was a great opportunity for all of us to get together with the kids all dressed up.  After the pictures were taken (and they went surprisingly well) we ran the kids back home and went back to enjoy the rest of the reception. 

Getting ready for the reception.

Nobody was running or crawling out of the shots this year!

Carter and Elsa posing for some shots.

Mia and Claire, ready to party.

We had a wonderful time with the Heinrich Girls, we can't wait to see everyone around the holidays!