"Bye, friend!"

My sweetie baby lovey is almost two! Ah! Why won't he stop growing up?! I wish I could keep him this way forever. He is SOO dang sweet and cute! Anyway, here goes the update:

• I swear Carter adds more and more words to his vocabulary every day. Here are some of my favorites:
• "A one" for "another one"
• "Ah me!" for "Look at me!"
• "Feeger" for "finger" (said as he holds up a finger with a nail that is peeling off)
• "Bee hug!" after we say family prayer (because Daniel is usually leaving for work)
• "All aboard!" when playing with trains 

• "Seeming" for "sleeping"
• "Ah wan to!" for "I don't want to!"
• "Pupcake" for "cupcake"
• "Hem me, Mommy" for "Help me, Mommy"
• "Four, five, sick" for "four, five, six" (this is how he counts, completely skipping one, two, and three)

• "Geecups" for "hiccups"
• "Hepper" for "helper" (he says this when he wants to help me unload the dishwasher or wipe down the table)
• "Poopace" for "toothpaste"
• "Hi, Mama" (which he says when he hasn't seen me in awhile or when he's happy)

• He also randomly says, "Mom, Dad, Mom, Dad, Mom" a lot. For no discernible reason. It's not even to get our attention or anything!
• He is the sweetest boy! He is quick to say sorry (a lot of the time without being asked), and he almost always says, "Thank you, Mommy!" when I give him food and help him with things. He has also started saying, "No thanks," when he doesn't want something.
• When we're at the park (or somewhere else where we're interacting with people) and either we or they leave, Carter shouts, "Bye, friend!"

• He loves running around and always says, "Fass!" When we respond, "You're so fast!", he looks so happy and proud.
• One of his favorite games involves driving his toy school bus over a table until it hangs off the edge and then running towards us and shouting, "Ah! Ah! Ah!" until we respond. When we look at the bus and say, "Oh no! They're going to crash! Save them, Carter!", he gets a big smile on his face, runs over to the bus, and pulls it back to safety (unless he feels like shoving it off and yelling, "Crash!").

• Anything that spins is a wheel. And if it's a wheel, Carter is obsessed with it. 
• He loves books, and it makes me so happy! Some favorites include The Pout-Pout Fish, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Hungry Caterpillar, Night-Night Little Pookie, The Little Engine That Could, Courduroy, and any book about trucks.
• We've begun letting him walk on his own when we take our family hikes. He loves it! He does have a tendency to fall a lot still, but he's getting better! And he loves exploring.

• He likes to play a game with Aubrey where he wraps himself up in the curtains while Aubrey says, "There's a monster in the curtains!" and runs away. Carter then runs after her shouting, "Monster!"
• He has started pretending to sleep. He'll say, "Tire, Mommy," and then lie down and close his eyes. Sometimes he fake snores, which is too adorable.
• He loves giving hugs (my favorite thing!), and he has recently started patting the other person on the back with both hands. So sweet! He also will come up to me when I'm lying down and say, "Suggle!" It never lasts long enough, but I'll take as much as I can get!

• He's starting to point out numbers and letters. He often gets them wrong, but his favorites (based on which ones he says the most, haha) are 2, 8, 9, A, F, W, and Y. Whenever he sees the letter W, he says, "Wagon!" He's also learning his colors, though he pretty much says everything is blue.
• Sometimes he says, "Dore you, Mommy." He's saying, "Adore you, Mommy," because I often say, "I adore you," to him. My heart melts every time!
• He loves cats, and when he sees one he says, "Kitty cat!" and "Awww." In this picture, he's trying to give the neighbor's cat a flower. <3

• He has a serious food throwing problem. If he gets mad about something during mealtime, he'll grab his plate and throw it or shove it off the table. He recently did that with a bowl of dried mangoes, and when we told him, "Carter, what do you say for throwing your mangoes?", he said, "Sorry mangoes." It was awesome!
• When he runs, he flings his right arm around in a kind of chugging motion, like a train. It's hilarious (and cute).
• He loves the movies Coco and Moana and always asks to listen to the songs. He asks for me to sing "Remember Me" at bedtime, and then he'll start quietly singing, "Re-meh-ber me" over and over. It KILLS me. He also loves "You're Welcome" from Moana. 

• He is completely obsessed with lollipops, which he calls "yummy pops" (or "nummy pops"... it's hard to tell). Oh man, the joy on his face when he gets one. And oh, the tantrum when he doesn't!
• One of his favorite things to say is "soccer ball." He says it out of the blue sometimes. He actually says "soccer" instead of "chocolate" too, so it sounds like "soccer milk" or "soccer chip." Heh.
• He sings a lot (It's so sweet!), and I just recently realized that in the the "Wheels on the Bus" song, he says, "Aubrey town" instead of "all through the town." Hehe.

 

• We've been taking him swimming a lot now that it's summer, and now he likes to pretend that he's swimming all the time. When he jumps onto the couch, he says, "Splash!" When he throws something on the ground, he says, "Splash." I love it.
• And finally, I feel like this video really illustrates who Carter is. I wish I could film everything he does, because everything he does is so cute! But alas, I can't. So what I have will have to do.