Around the house

Carter loves shoes... his, Ava's, mine, Mark's - he's not picky.

Silly/scary faces.

Ava has some obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Notice how her cheerios are lined up in a nice straight row.

Carter started copying Ava, lining his cheerios up as well, but then decided a random pattern was much more his style (and then very quickly decided eating them was even more fun).

Ava's latest compulsion is stacking books. She is very particular about the order and works at stacking and unstacking until she gets it just right. The good thing is this can occupy her for large chunks of time. The bad thing is when Carter decides he wants a book from the stack and she has a minor meltdown about messing up her stack. We have a lot of conversations about how books were meant to be read and not just stacked.

Sometimes after making a stack, she'll spend another chuck of time looking through every book in her stack.

And sometimes she'll take a break from stacking to line up some friends on the couch and get a book for each of them.

Birthday Pics

We had a great time celebrating Carter's birthday on the 3rd, in spite of Mark not feeling great and me dropping a full can of soda on my big toenail that morning causing it to immediately turn purple (I anticipate the toenail falling off sometime soon).Mark working his magic at the grill (our niece Sydney is quite attached to Uncle Mark... he thinks she's going to outgrow it and realize he's a dork - his words, not mine - but I don't see that happening!).

Carter left the kiddie table to see if other people had better food on their plates.

Apparently, Carter didn't want an audience while opening presents.

He got some great gifts - all his favorite things! Books...

trains...

... and trucks!

Cake made by my cousin Donna.

Ava got the hang of Carter's new t-ball set pretty quickly.

Carter, on the other hand, refused to hold the bat by the small end (even now, a week and a half later, he won't hold it correctly).

I just had to include this... he's already terrorizing girls... this is his cousin Abby.

Our big scary two-year old!

He really is a big boy - at his 2-year check-up, we found out he's 32 pounds and one inch shy of 3 feet tall!

Carter is TWO!

Carter turned 2 a week ago and I still haven't downloaded the pictures from my camera. I'll get to that soon, I promise. He brings us so much joy and I am thankful beyond words for the blessing of our son. Here are just a few of the things I love about this little man.

• I love his chubby arms and legs.
• His lower lip always seems to be sticking out – even if not as pronounced as it may have been a year ago (and I kind of miss the way his cheeks used to take over his whole face).
• He has the best little giggle.
  
• He likes to snuggle when he wakes up from a nap, sometimes for a good half hour.
• He likes to be touched. If I’m running my fingers up and down his arm or leg or playing with his hair and stop, he’ll grab my hand and put it back as if to tell me not to stop (this often happens during after-nap snuggle time).
• He has started asking me to come rock with him at night, even if daddy is home (Mark usually does the bedtime routine with them when he’s home).
• I love to watch him look at books – he isn’t very interested in actually hearing a story, but he looks so intently at books on his own.
• I also love how intently he plays. He likes to be at eye level with his trucks, cars or trains when he’s playing with them and is completely focused.
• I love how he backs up slowly and then charges full speed ahead to pounce on me.
• He gets so excited when he sees his daddy.
• He "talks" to and blows raspberries on my belly/his baby sister.
• I love to hear him say, “sorry” when he’s done something he isn’t supposed to – not just because he’s learning how to treat other people, but because the way he says it is so darn cute.
• He told me “dank-oo” without prompting when I gave him a plate of strawberries last week (and has done it on several occasions since).
• He has a sensitive and giving spirit – Ava was throwing a fit because she wanted to play with one of his new birthday toys and in the midst of me explaining (for the hundredth time) that he did not have to share his birthday toys, he handed her the toy.
• While he is now determined to walk up and down the stairs, always waits to hold my hand.
• I love the way he squeals when I threaten to eat his toes.
• I love the way he bounces when he runs.
• He claps for himself after doing a good job at something.
• I love when he cracks himself up.
• He gives great hugs and kisses.

God gave us such a special boy and we can't wait to see what the years ahead bring and what we might add to our list of things we love about him!

Lancaster, PA

While we were on vacation, we spent a few days in Lancaster, PA. We started off at the Strasburg Railroad. We missed the Thomas extravaganza that happened the following week, but did catch a glimpse of him "resting" in one of the buildings. Truthfully, I'm glad we weren't there for Thomas. We enjoyed sharing our train ride with very few other people and were able to enjoy the other attractions without fighting a crowd.
The next day we hit Dutch Wonderland. I think Ava almost had as much fun as Mark. Carter seemed to enjoy himself, too, but was a little more hesitant about riding rides.

Ava talked to the guide the ENTIRE time she rode the pony. I wish I could have heard what she was telling her!

As much as she loved the faster rides, Ava always wanted to come back to the carousel. I think this was the third time we rode... shortly after getting caught in the rain. Thankfully, the rain didn't last long!

On our last day in Lancaster, we took a buggy ride before heading back to MD. Each of the kids got a turn helping to "drive."

We had a great time - the weather was good, the kids held up well (and the adults, too), didn't have to fight crowds, and got to be with two sweet kids and two fabulous grandparents! A special thanks to my mom who made all the arrangements for our trip!!

For a whole album of pictures, go here. Mark also put together a few videos from the trip - this is from Strasburg and I'm having trouble getting the one from Dutch Wonderland to upload to the blog. It's also on youtube.com, but they disabled the audio.

Vacation

Last week was vacation! I was spoiled by having Mark and my parents around most of the time and now am feeling a little tired being a full-time mommy again.

We got there Saturday afternoon and jumped right into having fun. Carter got a tractor ride and Ava put Nana to work reading books... in fact, Ava had Nana reading books all week long. The morning we left, she was begging for "one more book!"
In addition to wagon rides, swinging, and checking out Pap's truck, Carter could often be found playing with cars or this train set (one of my childhood toys) on the floor. Almost always in this position.

Monday evening, we met my best friend and her family at a park for a picnic, but I, of course, failed to take any pictures, instead leaving my camera in the car. Her girls are 10 & 8 (I keep doing the math in my head and that doesn't seem possible, but I'm pretty sure I got that right!) and they immediately befriended Ava and took her off to play. It was very sweet and Ava continues to talk about her friends Molly and Lindsay.

Tuesday morning, we headed to Lancaster, PA. We visited the Strasburg Railroad Tuesday and headed to Dutch Wonderland on Wednesday. Before we left Thursday morning, we enjoyed a buggy ride through the countryside. Everything was a big hit! Back at my parents' house, we spent the rest of our time relaxing and enjoying being together.

I'll post pics from our mini-trip to Lancaster later, but here are some more from Nana & Pap's house.

Ava's first jump off the diving board - I was sure she'd chicken out, but she did it!

If Carter was out of the pool and someone was in the pool, you couldn't keep him from trying to jump in.

Can't you feel the love?

Carter with his buddy for the week. He'd often go to the front door and ask, "Swing?" After two seconds of swinging, he'd ask, "Truck?" wanting to go inspect Pap's truck. Once he spotted the cows and horses at the farm across the street, he'd also ask for, "horse?" if said animals weren't able to be seen.

Carter always is ready to eat - he'd notice us getting the table ready (or sometimes meals being prepared) and would rush to get in his chair. He had a little bit of time to wait that morning.

This one is a little random, but cracks me up, so I have to share it. At home, Ava doesn't always take a nap, but instead will spend close to 2 hours looking at books and arranging stuffed animals and books in her bed. Usually, the animals are arranged in a line and the books stacked in a very specific order. When I went to get her after "naptime" one day on vacation, she'd lined the books up around the perimeter of the bed. Also included are a few stuffed animals and the case of DVDs we brought along for the trip.

This and that

I told a friend that since this is our last baby, I wanted to be better at getting belly pictures. (I think I have one each from the other 2 times I was pregnant.) I'm still not doing very well this time around - here I am at 21 weeks (this was taken a week and a half ago... not only am I bad at having Mark take pictures, I'm even worse at posting them!):

I've been feeling great lately and even have energy to do things like weed the flowerbeds and plant some new things (to take the place of those ill-fated plants that decided not to put up with my neglect any longer). We've all enjoyed lots of fresh air and time outside lately. In fact, anytime I get Carter's shoes on, he immediately goes to the back door and wants to go outside to swing - he'd be happy to swing for hours on end. He's immensely disappointed when I tell him we have to go somewhere in the car. So, one day when we came home from the store, I let both kids stay outside while I unloaded the groceries. Everything was inside except a gallon of milk and a watermelon. I came outside to see said watermelon rolling down our driveway and a very guilty-looking Carter standing by the back of the station wagon. I chased it down the driveway, across the road and into the neighbor's yard, trying not to think of how ridiculous I must have looked. Thankfully, it remained intact, and I've learned my lesson to unload anything resembling a ball first.

Ava and I were playing her My Little Pony game the other day and we apparently needed an entire pony audience.
And, since the ponies had vacated their castle home, Carter took the opportunity to use it as a playground for his cars.

One last set of pictures. Ava loves going to the library - almost nothing is as exciting as new books. When we get home, I always get her out of the car first since she sits behind me. By the time I get Carter out and get inside, this is usually how I find her:

While he took a little longer to show an interest in books, Carter has become quite the little bookworm himself, and he'll often pull book after book off the shelf to look through them.

When it comes to naps and bedtimes, we used to read stories in Ava's room, then I'd go rock with Carter for a few minutes before putting him down and coming back to give Ava a hug and kiss, but one day Ava said she wanted to rock with us. It's a little tight getting all 3.5 of us in the rocking chair, but it's been such fun - albeit not always the quiet wind-down I'm hoping for. Ava likes to sing along with whatever song I'm singing (even if she doesn't know it), and Carter has started to join in as well. When Ava and I sing Jesus Loves Me, I'll hear random words I actually understand from Carter, like "Bible" and "Jesus" and "so." Touches my heart and makes me laugh all at the same time!