Big Boy Bed!

We went to Ikea today so Carter could pick out a new bed. He displayed a clear preference for the one in these pictures, but we can't be sure that he didn't just like how it bounced...

Home for the Holidays

Mid-December, the packages started arriving.  Carter loved looking through all those boxes.

But then, we headed north to Syracuse for Christmas this year and were rewarded with a white Christmas.

With family all around the surprises were spread over several days, but the the big morning was still magical.

For the first time Carter understood the idea of opening presents...

like a fastener board from Aunt Jenn,

and his first pillow made by Grammy -- he's slept with it every night since, 

and a great new book from Gram all about Carter at the River, 

and magnetic dinosaurs from Marni -- awesome!

Of course there was lots of family playtime, like hanging out with Aunt Jenn,

and horsing around with Grandad, 

and showing uncle (cousin) Kyle how to play a game.

There was musical entertainment provided by Aunt Jenn and Gram.

Carter was pretty even tempered through it all which made for a happy Mom and Dad.

We had a great holiday and hope all of you did too!

Sunday Night Surprise

Tonight, I was cleaning up dinner in the kitchen and Carter comes in and tells me he has to go potty. This has happened a couple times before and has either been too late or a false alarm.  (We haven't been making any effort at toilet training -- he hasn't seemed quite there yet.)  Well tonight I dropped what I was doing and took him in to the bathroom and... what'd'ya know?  He took care of business, stood up, and said "done."  Way to go little guy!

Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures, but here are a couple from the other morning.

A Crazy Thanksgiving Week

It all started with a visit from Marni the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Carter and Marni had a blast and Mimi and I got to go out on two dates!

Then the Jordan's showed up and Carter had more playmates than he knew what to do with.  There was a lot of reading time on the couch, which suited everyone just fine.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner complete with family, good friends, good food, and a fair bit of geekery in the turkey cooking department.

Carter was very ready for dinner and ate himself silly -- doesn't take much.

"Hey, what's a guy gotta do to get some pickled peaches around here?"

(Thanks Grammy!)

To walk it all off we had a couple good hikes at the local State Park.

Cruising with Mama

To end the week, we had a little (and somewhat belated) surprise party for Gram.  

Boy was she surprised.