Carson the Wonderful

Carson can't resist playing with rocks and dirt he finds along his way. In the top pic we were trying to walk home from visiting teaching and it took quite a while with all these rock gardens our neighborhood has.

This picture cracks us up. He looks like he's conquered that dirt pile and is winding up to throw his next handful of dirt onto the driveway. Our garden beds get turned over a lot. haha

As of late, Carson LOVES to read books! I love it too. With a big baby bump it's getting a bit harder to fit him on my lap, but it is so fun when he picks a book and backs onto my lap over and over again. One day we set a record and read 21 books over the course of the day. Usually we'll read some after diaper changes and before naps or bedtime.

As these next pictures show, one of Carson's favorite new activities is drawing/coloring. He does it with or without clothes, first thing in the morning and before bed at night. His favorite is for one of us to wrap our hand around his with the pencil in it and draw shapes over and over again. He gets so happy when he draws those shapes and now he notices circles, stars, flowers, squares, hearts, etc. all around us and in his books. He can even draw a good circle all by himself!!

This is his setup in the kitchen. Usually I feed him breakfast while he colors lots of fun pictures. We need lots of scratch paper all of a sudden!!

Our happy little artist.

I love how lately he likes to get on the floor and lay on his tummy with his cute little feet in the air while he colors or plays with cars.

I'm not sure how our morning routine's going to differ once "baby sister" is here, but I wanted to capture what it's like right now. I fix us breakfast (often toast or oatmeal) and we get to sit across from each other at this cutting board/pull out.

This is the wonderful view I have to start out each day! I know, I'm lucky.

Another new interest is watching whole videos (30 min.) of Baby Einstein by himself on the computer. He's even pretty good at not touching the keys now. I love just looking over and seeing that little body with his feet dangling in a grown up chair. He's totally glued to the screen!

Tonight I was holding Carson's little hand as he drifted off to sleep in the quiet. As with most nights, my heart felt like it was swelling inside me with all the immense love I feel for this boy. He is amazing to me and I really could never explain how deep the love I feel for him goes.

Time is quickly winding down to when we'll get to meet our "baby sister" and bring her home with us--and we can't wait!! But, I can't help but think (constantly) that my time with just my buddy, Carson is also winding down. Soon, my attention will be slightly more divided from what we've been used to for the past 18 months.
Each day I try to soak in all the little things that I love about hanging out with Carson and watching him grow. He is my buddy and I absolutely love that I get to hang out with him each and everyday--I never take that blessing for granted.

I don't want to forget these wonderful days and moments and have tried to take lots of pictures of our adventures. Carson turned 18 months old on the 25th. It seems like he's developed and grown so much in such a short time recently. I can hardly believe how fast time goes when I look back on pictures of him just a few months ago.

Some things I never want to forget about 18-month-old Carson:

• Since we've been drawing shapes, he recognizes them in books and toys and he can even recognize colors like blue and green when asked.
• I don't think he could pick an absolute favorite book, but the two about Thomas the Tank Engine would probably be near the top. We don't watch Thomas, but he loves him and recognizes him at the store.
  
• He is starting to play independently more and more. Things that will hold his attention are cars, race tracks, bouncy balls, stackable blocks, and toys that play music.
• He's very good at making mechanical sounds for cars and planes too.
  
• He loves to move "heavy" things (like packages and groceries) and stack them like he sees us do. Also, he just loves building towers out of anything. It's amazing what he'll find to stack and it's even more amazing how good he is at balancing relatively small objects on top of each other!
• He's been able to say "ball" (bah) and "Brindle" (Innel) for a few weeks now. However, just in the past week or so I've noticed that he's starting to imitate the beginning sounds of words we say. For example, if he wants his binky he'll say something like "ba ba ba" or for milk "meh meh". Last night I'm almost positive he said "six" and this morning I could swear I heard him say "oast" while eating his toast.
  
• He is a very sweet and sensitive boy. The other day I was crying and he wasn't quite sure at first whether to laugh or not. But, he realized I wasn't really laughing so he just wanted to sit with me and give me a hug while he laid his head on my shoulder. (I LOVE when he just wants to give me a hug to cheer me up). But then, I asked him to get me a tissue. Benji gave him one and told him to take it to Mommy. I tried to grab it from him to wipe my face and nose, but he wouldn't let me and instead began gently wiping my face for me--sooooooooo sweet!!
• Last night, we had had a long day and I got home after dark with him and my parents' dog, Brindle. I was trying to get us all in with the diaper bag and was feeling a little exasperated. Once we were all inside I set Carson down and just said, "Brindle, we need to feed you." I thought I'd get her food in a minute after putting a few things away. Then, I heard a noise and turned around to find that Carson had gone into the garage, gotten the bucket (it's pretty heavy for him) of Brindle's food and was trying to haul it into the kitchen for me. My heart just melted. Of course, he wanted to do it himself and refused help. But, he did end up getting it to me (with a few stray pieces on the floor along the way :).

Carson, I hope you never forget how much Daddy and I love you! You are such a wonderful boy and we feel so blessed each and every day that we get to be your parents. You bring a love and happiness to us that we'd never felt before. We can't wait for you to become a big brother in just a few weeks and are so glad your siblings have you to look up to. WE LOVE YOU!!