On it!

It hasn't been too long since I did a Carter update, but a number of funny things have been done/said by this cute boy, so I had to get them down on paper screen. (?) Anyway, here are some highlights:

• Funny phrases and misspeaks:
• "On it!" (when we ask him to do something... unless he says "no," which is also common)
• "Lellow" for "yellow"
• "Is it bleeding?" (every time he gets hurt)
• Calls Dash from The Incredibles "Dash-Dash" (like Jack-Jack)
• "Ariels" for "Oreos"'
• When he plays by himself, he loves to hold pretend races. I sneaky filmed him playing the other day with a stick he picked up in a walk in our neighborhood the day before. He named it Sticky, hehe.

• He found a stuffed animal frog that Nana gave to us and named it Froggy McWoggy. And for some reason, he loves putting Froggy McWoggy under his shirt and pretending it's his baby. Then he gives birth to it by pulling it out of his shirt. Kids, right? Weirdos.
• He loves playing the game Uno Attack! His favorite thing is having the cards shoot out at him. I don't think he realizes it's not a good thing. But I love seeing how excited he gets.

• One day we had a super funny conversation that went like this:
  Carter: "Did somebody toot in here?"
  Me: "I don't know. I didn't."
  *I give him a knowing look*
  Carter: "I think it was Clara."
  Me: "She's not in here. She's in her room asleep."
  Carter: "I think she did it and it went through that little hole into here."
  Me: "Through the vent?"
  Carter: "Uh, yeah."
• He is getting so good on his bike! It still has training wheels, but we're planning on taking them off this summer. Here is a video of him on the bike for the first time.

He went from that to this in less than half an hour!

• A couple months after Clara was born, he was telling someone about it (I can't remember who) and said, "This is Clara. She's my baby sister. She was in Mommy's tummy, and then she popped out, and then I could sit on Mommy's lap again!" He said this last part because toward the end of my pregnancy I told him there wasn't room on my lap. I love that he loves sitting on my lap still.
• Sometimes, after he has eaten, he will rub his stomach and say he's full. He's cute.
• He loves to feed Clara and make her laugh. He's such a good big brother!

• Before I had my hernia surgery, he used to insist on playing this game whenever we got home from driving somewhere. We'd pull into the garage, and then he'd instruct me on what to do. He would pretend to be asleep in his car seat, and when I opened the door I would say, "Aww, Carter fell asleep!" Then I would carry him into the house, lay him on the couch, and cover him with a blanket. Then he'd pop up and run around the family room. But after surgery I couldn't carry him, so he switched it so that I would say, "Aww, Carter fell asleep! I guess I'll just unbuckle him and let him him sleep." Then I'd carry Clara inside and leave the door between the garage and house open, with my back to the door as I put my shoes in the cubby. In the meantime, Carter would get out of his car seat and run quietly to the door and giggle until I turned around, acted surprised, and then said, "Oh, he's awake!" Eventually he would "sleepwalk" past me, go up the stairs, and lie down on the couch. Then I would cover him with a blanket while he pretended to keep sleeping. Funny buddy.

• We got a huge container of animal crackers from Costco (I think), and he somehow got obsessed with the squirrels. Every time I poured some into a bowl for him, he would say, "Did you give me any squirrels?" Then he would count how many of them he had. When I got a new container at Sam's Club, there weren't any squirrels, so he became obsessed with the penguins. He said they were all named Orville, after the penguin in one of his favorite books, Penguinaut.
• We finally got around to putting up the wall decals in his room. I had him choose where to put the different elements, and he even put some up himself. He was so happy!

• He has started replacing words in songs with "poop." It's super charming. He learned it from Aubrey. He also likes to change the words to songs by changing each word to start with the same sound. (Example: "By bam ba bild bof bod" instead of "I am a child of God.")
• Speaking of singing, when we play Frozen 2 songs in the car (which is all the time), he insists that only he can sing the boy parts of the songs. He gets really upset if we sing them too.
• In general, he's just very sensitive. If you censure him at all, he gets really upset and lashes out violently. I think he doesn't know how to process/handle someone telling him he did something bad/wrong and then feeling bad about himself.

• When he gets really angry at someone, he will put both hands out in front of him with his fingers curled and make a menacing face. We call it the "Star Wars death hands." It really looks like he's trying to use the force to send lightning through his fingers. It's hilarious.
• Every time he uses the bathroom at home, he comes out with his pants around his ankles and says, "Mommy, come see what I did in the potty!" It's a phrase no one wants to hear. I never know if I'm going to just look or have to wipe his bum after. 
• At school they celebrated his half birthday in December, so he got to color a birthday cake and do birthday buckets.

• Sometimes, after he uses the bathroom and I tell him to wash his hands, he'll run away and start touching things in his room just to make me mad. And oh does it make me mad.
• Speaking of using the bathroom, here's a story that will go down in Jibson history. We went to visit Nana and Papa when Carter was first potty trained, and he went outside to play with Aubrey. Awhile later, he came walking into the house with his pants and underwear around his ankles. He proudly said, "Mommy, I went poo-poo!" Confused, I said, "What? Where?" And he said, "On the big rock out there!" And if it wasn't bad enough that he pooped on a rock in Nana's and Papa's backyard, he then added, "Yeah, I was just talking to my friend!" So yeah, he pooped on a rock while talking to Nana's and Papa's next door neighbor. A few days later, Daniel's dad ran into the neighbor and just said, "I hear you met my grandson..." Hahaha.
• When we go to Dos Amigos, he insists on dipping his chips in ketchup. It's so wrong.

• He does a lot of really cute things at bedtime. After we read books, he always says, "Let's race to turn off the light." So I say, "On your mark. Get set. Go!" and we race to the light switch. One time I didn't let him win, and he insisted we do it again. Haha. 
• After turning out the lights, he tells me to say, "Where's Carter?", and then he jumps out of the shadows and laughs. We get in bed, often after he has jumped on it several times, and then we snuggle and do songs. When I say it's time for me to go, he often says, "No, I put a cage around you, so you can't leave." And then he makes a sound effect that is supposed to be the cage closing, I guess. Then he says, "Now you have to sleep here." 
• He also gives me sweet kisses at bedtime (and honestly, all the time). I started doing really fast, loud, repeated kisses on his cheek, and he tries to do the same but isn't very fast. And he asks me to count them. He always ends up laughing after about 10 or so.
• For awhile there, he would switch his head to the other side of the bed after we would leave his room. He also slept in his shark blanket when he did that.

• At the library's story time one day, they read a book called How Do We Get to the Beach? And when the librarian said the name of the book, he shouted, "Take a motorcycle!" At the same storytime, the librarian made an announcement to the parents about a Dr. Seuss celeration that was coming up. She said, "So you might want to mark your calendars," to which Carter replied loudly, "Um, I don't have a calendar!" Both comments made me laugh.
• At that same storytime, I decided to take a video of him dancing to the shaky egg song. I'm so glad I did! He busts a move out of nowhere, man. It's awesome. It's particularly funny because it's right after the song says, "Shake it soft so only you can hear."

• He super loves the Disney Junior show Puppy Dog Pals. And he recently started calling it Puh-Puh-Puh Puppy Dog Pals, which is how they sing it in the intro song. It's so cute. 
• When we ask him to do something and he is actually willing to do it, he gives us a thumbs up and does this super cute winky face/crooked smile thing that is just too adorable. He's kind of making the face in this picture, though I wish I had a better example.

• After he got stitches, whenever he would tell the story of what happened, he would say that he had to go to the dentist after he got hurt. It's pretty funny and cute!
• One Sunday, I guess his teachers at church said he couldn't have the treat they brought until after the lesson and only if he was a good listener. He responded, "Have you been hanging out with my mom and dad?" 
• He loves taking photos on my phone, especially of himself making silly faces. I made a collage of some recent ones.

• And, of course, he likes taking videos of himself, too. I love this particular video because he filmed it while I was putting Clara down for her nap. I have two songs I always sing to her before she sleeps, and Carter always sings them with me if he's around. So you can hear him singing along at different parts of this video, and it's just so sweet.

My Buddy Got Stitches

On Thursday, February 13th, Carter had his preschool Valentine's Day party. We went and had a nice time, and then we went home. While Daniel and I were in the kitchen about to start making dinner, Aubrey got really upset about something; I don't even remember what it was. So she went to our "calm down corner," which is a little spot between our big couch and the wall. She was, however, not calming down. Truth be told, she was completely losing it. And her freakout was increased by the fact that Carter kept bugging her.

He decided to lie down on top of the couch and poke at her and just generally bother her. I told him several times to stop and leave her alone, but he kept doing it and laughing. This, of course, made Aubrey scream more. Finally, he grabbed a long wooden toy (specifically the red arch of a wooden rainbow stacking set) and hit her on the head with it. So I, completely fed up with him, stomped over to the couch, grabbed him by the shirt, and pulled him down to take him to his room.

Unbeknowst to me, he kind of pushed off against the wall at the same time. So between me pulling him, the laws of gravity, his not insignificant weight, and the fact that he pushed off, he got some good momentum as he rolled down the couch onto the cushions. It was so much momentum, in fact, that he didn't stop. Instead, he came full off the couch and hit his head on the edge of the coffee table. It made a sickeningly loud thud.

I immediately went from angry to sorry when I realized he was hurt and said, "Oh, Carter, buddy! Are you okay?" and pulled him onto my lap to hug him. Daniel, who saw the whole thing happen, said, "Shoot, Michelle, he's bleeding." Carter was, of course, crying very hard at this point, and when I pulled away to look at him, there was a lot of blood. Daniel ran and got a paper towel, and I put it on the cut. It's a little fuzzy at this point, but I'm pretty sure Daniel asked if it was going to need stitches, so I pulled the paper towel back and said, "Yes, definitely." (He thinks he told me that it needed stitches, but I remember telling him. Anyway.)

So Daniel ran and grabbed the keys, grabbed Carter, and carried him to the car in less than a minute. He drove to urgent care, where they said they wouldn't be able to sedate Carter if he needed it. They actually asked Daniel, "Would you be willing to hold him down while we do it?" Uh, yeah, that's a no. So then they headed to the pediatric ER.

Meanwhile, I was at home sobbing and feeling awful. I called my mom and relayed the story to her through my sobs (not sure how she could even understand me), and I said I wanted to be with him. She told me to call a babysitter to come sit with Aubrey and Clara. So I called a girl from our ward who can drive, and she came over immediately.

When I got to the ER, they took me to Carter's room. He was sitting on the bed and watching TV with a bandage wrapped around his head. Daniel was sitting on a chair next to him with his head in his hands. When Carter saw me, he said, "Mommy!" and was excited to see me. I didn't feel like I deserved that kind of affection, but I was so glad for it. I sat in the second chair by the bed but felt like I wanted to be closer to Carter, so I climbed into bed with him and snuggled.

The doctors confirmed that yes, he would need stitches, and then Daniel headed home to put the girls to bed while I stayed with Carter. Before he left, Daniel warned me not to look at the cut. I figured that once they knew he would need stitches, the doctor would just do them and we'd be out of there. But the process was a lot more involved than that. And I'm actually very glad it was, because it made it a much better experience.

They started by giving Carter a popsicle to make him happy and help him feel better. Then they came in, removed the bandage, and put a numbing gel on the cut. I was so glad he didn't have to get a shot! The gel was super cold though, which Carter didn't like. I tried to distract him by saying it was like his popsicle, brrr, so cold! That seemed to help a bit. Then he got another popsicle, and that really helped, haha.

During that process, I ended up seeing the cut without really trying. And my stomach just dropped. It was big and deep, like at least a half inch deep. They placed a little plastic shield over the cut and gave the gel a good 45 minutes to work before coming back in. We just hung out and snuggled while watching Disney Junior.

When they did return, they removed the shield and wiped off the area around the cut. He was nervous, but they hung out with him and made him feel comfortable before they did anything to him. Then they gave him a sedative (a fentanyl nose spray), which he did not like at all. It was the worst part for him, other than the splitting his head open part. But he definitely needed a sedative, because before he got it he was very concerned anytime someone touched him.

While they waited for the sedative to take effect, they gave him an iPad and let him choose a movie. He chose Coco. Weirdly, the doctor said nearly every kid his age chooses that movie. I mean, it is a good one! So the setup involved the doctor on the right side of his head, a nurse at the top of his head holding it still, and a resident watching the process to learn. My job was to hold the iPad for him. They warned me that if I started to feel dizzy that I should immediately sit down. I figured I'd be fine.

And I was right; I didn't get dizzy. I did, however, start to feel very nauseated as they began cleaning the wound, and I seriously worried I was going to throw up. So I passed the iPad off to the resident and sat down. I asked if I could go get a drink from their water machine, but the doctor said, "I don't want you walking." So another nurse brought me a water bottle and offered his assitance with anything else I needed, which was very kind.

It was during the process of cleaning the wound that I really saw how bad it was. And that was what made me feel sick. Once I sat down, I couldn't see anything, so I didn't have to watch the stitching. Carter was a champ (and the sedative was a godsend), and the only complaint he had was that the thread was tickling his face. He didn't feel anything and was happy as a clam. I was SO glad. They finished it up by putting bandaids loosely over the top to keep him from touching the 14 stitches he got.

On our way out, the doctor gave Carter a stuffed animal for being so brave. He had a choice between a cat and a dog, and he chose the cat. Best of all, he named it Mr. Purr. He sleeps with it (and a couple other stuffed animals) every night.

On the car ride home, Carter was really funny. He was just kind of loopy and pointing out weird things, like, "Look, there's a light over there!" I tried to get a video, but he caught me and then asked if he could watch videos, haha. When we got home, we gave him a bowl of pasta salad since he had missed dinner. It was about 9:00, so we had been at the ER for a few hours. He was still just as happy as could be.

The next day, Carter was a tired little buddy. He took a little nap on the couch, and we got a picture. You can see the cut a lot better in it. You can also see him holding Mr. Purr.

Anyway, the whole experience was awful and made it hard for me to sleep that night. I just kept thinking about the thud and his cry and all of the blood. I didn't wash out his shirt for more than a week because it just made me feel so sad for him. The blood did come out, but I'll never see that shirt again without thinking of that night. *sigh*