"I amn't"

Since Carter just turned four, I thought I should do an update on him! There's a lot to say about this boy. He's a complicated one. He's very high-emotion and hits both extremes of the spectrum multiple times in one day. When he's happy, he's the happiest. When he's sweet, he's the sweetest. But when he's angry... Well, you can guess.

Anyway, here are some more fun facts about Mr. Carter:

• He says funny things!
• "Harbert" for "harbor"
• "Mom, is the Earth spinning?" (asked randomly and often)
• "I amn't" instead of "I am not"
• "Holy moly fock-a-foly!"
• "I don't want to bother anyone. I just want to scream!" (said happily while driving)

• When he eats something like a fruit cup, he likes to put his spoon in one hand and the plastic cup in the other hand and say, "Watch, Mommy!" He then stretches both arms all the way out and drops the spoon in the sink and throws the cup in the trash at the same time. He's always so proud of himself.
• We got Aubrey a wooden rainbow stacking puzzle for her birthday, and for awhile there Carter was obsessed with using the red arch, the largest arch, as a jet pack. It's particularly funny because I don't know that he really knows what that is. He would take the arch, put it over his stomach, and "blast off" by running around and making a "pshoooo" sound.

• He was also obsessed with bows and arrows for awhile, and he used to pretend clothes hangers were bows. He would shoot pretend arrows with them and tuck them into the back of his shirt, in the neck hole behind his head. I love the creativity!
• We went to Matthew and Sharon's house for lunch one day, and they have goats. William wanted to show Carter and Aubrey the goats, so they went out while the rest of us stayed at the kitchen table playing a game. Just beyond the table at their house is a set of French doors leading to the back yard, where the goats are kept. So a few minutes after the kids went out to see the goats, we heard Carter yelling and looked towards the back yard just in time to see him run to the door with a panic-stricken look on his face. He grabbed both handles of the French doors, shook them but couldn't get them open, and then kept running away while screaming in terror. A few seconds later, we saw a goat saunter lazily past the doors. Naturally, we all cracked up. Then we went to help poor, traumatized Carter. Hahaha.

• When I put him to bed, I always tell him to choose two books for me to read to him. He went through a phase in which he would walk over to the bookshelf, pretend to grab a book, and then "hand it" to me. I would then pretend to grab it, open it, and begin reading. Then I'd say, "Once upon a time, there was a boy named Carter who liked to read invisible books!" or something like that. He always cracked up with his adorable laugh.
• Unfortunately, he likes to shake his naked butt at people. After using the bathroom, he used to run out with his pants and underwear off and shake his butt at Aubrey. The more she said, "Ew!", the more he laughed.
• One day, when I took a walk through our neighborhood with Aubrey and Carter, we walked by one of those pad-mounted transformers that look like this:

I think one of the kids asked me what the sign meant... the one that looks like this:

So I told them that these boxes had a lot of electricity and could shock people if they weren't careful. I don't remember if one of the kids asked me if it could kill someone or if I just told them, but either way they found that out. Then, a few days later, Carter pointed out the window as we were driving and said, "Look, it's a death box!" He was pointing at one of those transformers. Once I realized that was what he meant, I almost died laughing.

• He has an imaginary friend! His name is Caymer. Carter always talks about him as having done something, like winning a race or telling Carter something. Sometimes Caymer is out somewhere, like the store or something. I think it's SO cute!
• He still always says, "I love you" to me randomly. I will never not love this.

• He is a bit whimpy about hiking and tends to complain about being tired towards the end of each hike. One time, after he had done a great job on a pretty long (for him) hike, we told him hiking would make him strong. He responded, "Yeah, I'll be strong like Daddy and Mr. Incredible!" Daddy in particular liked that cute comment. :)
• Speaking of hiking, Carter has a tendency to lag behind, and not just when he's tired. He is always preoccupied with finding sticks and dragging them (or sometimes his hands) through the dirt. There was one hike when he got down on his hands and knees and crawled along the trail so he could push dirt around with his hands. Boy loves dirt.

• When he and Aubrey play superheroes (which happens a lot), his character is Brick Man. Not sure what his powers are, but I feel like it's a fitting name for him.
• His favorite number is 126. Whenever he says a number for anything, it's always 126.
• When we went to Utah to have a little family gathering at Colt's cabin, we got to ride in their offroading Razor car thing. During the ride Carter shouted, "I don't like this at all! Wait a minute; yes I do!"

• He likes to wrap a paper towel around his forearm at dinner and then say, "Mommy, I broke my arm!" It actually does look like a cast...
• Ever since Carter got stitches, we've been adamant about him wearing a hat when he goes outside. But for some reason, he wears his baseball hat so far forward that he has to tip his head back really far to see anything. If we fix the hat for him, he just puts it back. 

• He's so sweet with Clara! She gets excited when he pays attention to her, and that makes him just beam. He likes to grab her face and baby talk to her. He is also very attentive when it comes to keeping her safe from objects she shouldn't have. We don't like her to chew on the Nerf gun bullets, because the tips can break off. So he always takes it upon himself to get them (and other potentially dangerous items) from her or move them to where she can't reach. He also got super excited when she first learned how to crawl. He still says, "Baby's crawling!" whenever she does it. 

Carter Turns Four!

Well, another "quarantine" birthday in the books. I think it turned out well, all things considered! No party, but it was a good day. Carter was a happy boy, and that's all I could ask for.

For two weeks leading up to Carter's birthday, we were out of town visiting Daniel's family in Utah and then visiting Maren in California. And with vacation brain, I didn't realize that Carter's birthday was on Monday until it was Thursday. (I knew it was that week, but I thought it was in the middle of the week.) We had been planning on driving from California to Utah on Saturday, taking a day to rest and hang out with Karen's family, and then driving the rest of the way home on Monday. But I felt awful having Carter spend his birthday bored in the car, and we were ready to get home anyway. So we drove two days in a row and got home the night before his birthday.

Thankfully, the presents I ordered for Carter on Thursday made it there the day before his birthday. So after the kids went to bed, we wrapped presents and ran to the store to get balloons, Lucky Charms (his favorite cereal), and stuff to make some of his favorite foods. I also made the batter for our traditional birthday Swedish pancakes.

In the morning, Carter came and snuggled me in bed like he always does. It's my favorite. Then we went downstairs, where his presents were waiting for him on the table, along with his balloons, cereal, and a sign that said, "Happy Birthday, Carter!"

He couldn't wait to open his presents until after breakfast, obviously, so we did that first. (Side note: My phone's camera sucks, so most of my pictures are blurry. It's better than nothing though, I suppose.)

Aubrey insisted he open hers first. She got him the Owl Glider from PJ Masks. He's been asking for it for quite awhile. 

Then he opened the stomp rockets we got for him.

He was excited!

Finally, he opened the helicopter transformer we got him. I love his face here! (Also, he named it Helicopteree before finding out its real name is Blade.)

While the pancakes were cooking, Carter tested out his new toys.

We finally got him to eat some pancakes... sort of. He was pretty distracted. He chose purple for the batter color. I think he was just copying what Aubrey chose for her last birthday. But Daniel made him this cool birthday cake pancake, which I thought was fun.

Then we got ready and headed to the park to launch the stomp rockets. We let Carter and Aubrey test it out at home by pressing the launch pad with their hands, but we wanted to get out in the open air so they could stomp on it and really make the rockets go far. Carter's first attempt was awesome! Only...

... he missed it. So yeah, jerky reaction. It really bugged me. But it is pretty funny that he didn't even see how far it went. He did at least calm down right after this video, and watching Daniel do it made him very excited.

So then he was ready to try again. I love his wind-up!

Because it was Carter's birthday, we let the kids play at the park for awhile. There were just a few other kids there that we actually know from church, so... *shrug*

We then stopped at the school to get lunch for the kids (Yay, free lunch!) and headed back home. I made Carter take a photo with his balloons, with the intention of getting a better photo later but also knowing I probably wouldn't get around to it. (Spoiler alert: I didn't.) They were tied to one of the kitchen chairs, so it was hard to get a good shot. And the background shows our messy house. But hey, again, better than nothing! (I think that's starting to become my motto...)

It was much easier to get just the balloons...

We then let the kids watch a movie while I baked the cake and made the frosting. Carter chose Hercules. When it was over, he decorated his cake. He chose orange for the frosting. (And yes, he's not wearing pants. He pretty much never does unless we make him.)

Then he wanted to do a heart in sprinkles (which is what he did on the mini cake he got to help me decorate for Aubrey's birthday). He used all the colors of the rainbow!

And here's the finished product (with some help from Mommy)!

His face! Love.

After dinner (pasta with homemade rosemary focaccia bread dipped in Carter's favorite thing--oil and vinegar), we let him place the candles in his cake.

 

Then we sang.

And, of course, then we ate cake! Carter mostly ate the frosting, as usual. Then he said, "Look! I can balance my fork on my finger. Because I'm four!" Hehe.

All in all, it was a good day. Carter didn't have any big meltdowns, and he said multiple times that it was a great day or the best day ever. That made me happy.

Happy birthday, Carter! Oh, and STOP GROWING! K, thanks.

Stitches... Again

So... 2020 has not been a great year for anyone. But poor Mr. Carter has had a particularly rough time of it. As I posted about before, he had to get stitches on February 13th. I was hoping we had checked off the obligatory stitches box and wouldn't have to go through that with him again, but alas...

On May 13th, while I was in the kitchen getting lunch stuff prepped, Aubrey and Carter were spinning in the family room. They were having a lot of fun until--thud! Carter started crying and I instantly knew he had hit the coffee table again. This time it was the corner. And this time it was the other side of his head, just below the eyebrow.

It bled for a bit but then stopped, so we thought he probably didn't need stitches. But Daniel did the chat-with-a-doctor thing on Kaiser's website, and they said he should go in. They said he'd probably only need glue. So Daniel took Carter to urgent care, where they informed him that Carter actually would need stitches. Ughhhh.

So long story short, they tried the numbing stuff, but it didn't work. He kept wincing when they tried to clean it. So they had to do a shot. I wasn't there, so I can't give details, but Daniel said it was awful. Carter screamed the whole time, and Daniel had to hold him down. If we had known Carter was going to need stitches, we would have gone to the pediatric ER again. On the one plus side, he was fine as soon as they were done. At least there's that. And I'm glad I didn't have to be there; I would have been seriously traumatized. I just hope Carter wasn't.

The best thing is that I did get some good snuggles from all of it! 

Anyway, no more stitches please! We have a new ottoman coming to replace the coffee table. So that should help. Oyyyy.

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*

"I want to go home"

Oh, this boy. He still owns my heart, but WOW does he try my patience these days! He has hit full-on threenager status. I really do believe though that at his core he is still a sweet, loving boy. I think this is just a phase. We can do it. We can do it. Haha.

• Common Carter phrases and funny misspeaks:
• "I want to go home" (spoken ALL THE TIME, including when we're already home)
• "See you at the finish line!" 
• "I want to be nice now" when he comes out of timeout
• "Mommy, I love you sooo much!" (usually spoken when he's in the middle of watching shows)
• "Absolutely" (for example, "I absolutely will not!")
• "This is a rough day" or "This is a lucky day" (spoken randomly and sometimes right after each other)
• "Tow by" for "bow tie" (referring to pasta)
• "Skittle the cards" for "shuffle the cards"
• "Destruction workers" for "construction workers"
• "Caboosk" for "caboose"
• "That is not a good idea!" when he doesn't like something I've said we're going to do
• "If it huggers, let it go" for "If it hollers, let it go" in "Eenie, Meanie, Miney Moe" song
• "You're breaking my heart" when I do something to make him sad or when Clara cries
• "I'm pressed" for "I'm impressed"
• "Huggy, huggy" and "kissy kissy" when he wants hugs or kisses
• "S-T-E-R-T-E-R" is how he thinks his name is spelled
• "Being reverent isn't my thing."
• "_______ isn't my thing."
• Calling Daniel "that guy" to someone at church

• He often puckers up and goes "mmm mmm!" until I let him kiss me. It's so cute! Sometimes he asks to kiss me on the lips, which I don't love. But I don't have the heart to tell him no!
• He still asks me for snuggles when he gets sad. I hope that never stops, but I know it will. *sniff*
• He calls the band OK GO "jump into paint" because of one of their music videos, in which they jump into spraying paint. 
• He likes to play a little game with me in which I say, "Mr. Carter" (pronounced "Mista Cahter") and then he says, "Mr. Mommy!" I then act all confused/affronted and say, "No, it's Mrs. Mommy! Mrs. Mommy!" He always laughs and asks me to do it all over again.
• His current favorite shows are the Disney shorts (Minnie's Bow Toons and the nursery rhymes), True and the Rainbow Kingdom and Doc McStuffins, and he still loves Wreck-It-Ralph, Coco, Moana, and, of course, High School Musical.

• At bedtime I always read two books to him. I used to ask him which book he wanted to read first, and at some point he started telling me to ask him that. Then he would jump up onto the bed while at the same time hitting one of the books to select it. He does it every night now and will even get off the bed to do it if he climbs up before I ask him.
• Then, after we read, we climb into bed for snuggles and songs. When I ask him what song he wants, he (lately) always chooses "I Am a Child of God" and then "I Love to See the Temple." After he selects the song, he'll say, "Do you want to know which verse I want?" He'll then proceed to sing the whole verse he wants (which is always the second one) instead of just telling me which one it is. It's pretty sweet hearing him sing to me! And then I sing it again to him, haha.

• For awhile there, he would ask me to sing him "The Chocolate Milk Song" at bedtime. It basically involved me repeating whatever weird phrases he said about chocolate milk and how/when he liked to drink it.
• One day we heard the kids arguing in the kitchen and then a loud cry from Carter, who had clearly gotten hurt. He came running to our room, and the following conversation occurred, with Carter very dramatically crying the whole time:
• Carter: "Aubrey hit me!"
• Me: "What were you guys fighting over?"
• Carter: "Cheese!"
• Me, trying not to laugh: "What did she hit you with?"
• Carter: "The cheese!"
• Ever since we went to IKEA a few months ago, he has become obsessed with it. He was particularly enamored with the huge and plentiful escalators. Now whenever we drive by it, he points and says, "Mommy, look! There's IKEA!"

• He once said, "See you Thursday!" when Daniel left to go somewhere.
• He likes to play a game in which he comes up to me with his little toy firetruck and say, "Is your kitty stuck in a tree?" I say, "Yes! Could you get him down for me?" He says yes and then proceeds to jump in the air and grabs the pretend cat out of the pretend tree and brings it to me. I then thank him profusely.
• When we get home and I go around the car to unbuckle his car seat for him, he always pretends to be asleep. So I unbuckle him and say, "Oh, Carter's asleep! I guess I'll let him nap in the car." Then I take Clara inside, and while I'm putting my shoes away, he sneaks up and behind me until I turn and act all surprised and say, "Oh, it's Carter! He's awake!" Then he laughs.

• When we go to Dos Amigos, he doesn't ever want to eat rice or quesadilla. He does, however, like to eat chips dipped in ketchup. It's horrible, but at least it gets him to eat something.
• I don't remember what they were talking about at the time, but Carter randomly said to Aubrey, "Ms. Shelley and Ms. Kathleen are nice to me. They wouldn't eat me."
• He sometimes drags his finger across words as he pretends to read them. He has no clue how to read, obviously, so the only things he gets right are the titles of books he knows really well and has therefore memorized. One time, while driving somewhere near Denver with Daniel, he pointed at a sign and said, "That says, 'Happy Thanksgiving!'" It actually said, "We love Denver."
• Just earlier this week I said, "Aww, it's okay, my love!" to Clara when she was crying. Carter then said to her, "Aww, your love, it's okay!"

• At the end of my pregnancy with Clara, I always had to tell Carter he couldn't sit on my lap because my belly was in the way. For a couple of weeks after she was born, he would say, "Mommy, you have a lap again!" He also kept saying the baby was going to "pop out" of me, so afterwards he would sometimes say, "Mommy, you have a lap again! Baby Clara popped out!"
• We made a laminated "getting ready checklist" for Aubrey when she first started kindergarten. Carter wanted one of his own to draw on like Aubrey (who checked things off after she did them), but since he didn't have one he would just scribble all over hers while describing how he'd go to school and walk in and hang his backpack up, etc. 
• Speaking of preschool, he totally loves it. For the first month or so he would say, "I'm so excited for preschool!" when we were on our way, and then he'd say, "I had so much fun at preschool!" when I picked him up. His teachers said multiple times that he was very gentle and sweet, even politely asking other kids if he could have a turn with a toy and offering to help other kids with a puzzle. I'm so glad he is good and sweet at school! 

• At home, however, he's been having a much rougher time. He is going through what I hope is just a phase of hitting, screaming, kicking, and shouting, "Stupid Mommy!" whenever something upsets him. And a lot of things upset him. If I ever tell him no about anything, he immediately throws a fit and starts hitting me and/or yelling. I don't give in to his demands when he does this, so I'm not sure why he keeps doing it. But oh, he does. 
• He is obsessed with pockets. That's all. It's cute.
• When he fake cries (but is actually upset), he puts both hands in front of his face and nods his head while moving his hands up and down. It just makes me laugh at him rather than feel bad for him.
• He often sleeps with his hands behind his head. It reminds me of my Grandpa Westall!

• He turns everything into a gun (which he calls a "shooter thing") and goes, "Pew pew!"
• When my mom and I dropped him off at his first day of preschool and said we were going shopping, he said, "You'll be bored without me." Haha.
• When I tell him not to do something, he says smugly, "But I already did."
• Another time, when we were at the park with my mom, he said, "Mom, can we go to the car? Because I'm kind of whiney." It was true, but I can't believe he recognized it!
• He loves to play with any kind of vehicle, and he often asks me to ride whatever vehicle he's playing with. By that he means for me to put my pointer and middle fingers on (if it's small) or in (if it's larger) the vehicle while he moves it around. I'm usually sitting when he does this, so he can't go too far before my hand loses contact and I "fall" out.

• For a brief period of time, he would move his head all around and smell the air for things he was looking for. It was so weird.
• When I gave him homemade syrup one day, he said, "Thank you so much, Mommy! You made my life come true!" He actually thanks me a lot--without being prompted--for doing things for him. It's the sweetest.
• We decided to do a one-week camp of swimming lessons for him, and it went okay at first. But then his second or third time he decided he didn't want to get in the water, and I had to basically force him. Then one day Daniel took him and didn't force him but just took him home. And the whole thing was a disaster. The video below is from his first day, before he freaked out. We weren't super happy with his instructor, who basically stopped doing anything with him other than holding him and dragging him through the water as he looked up at the ceiling (photo below). After everything, he ended up being more afraid of the water and less confident. So that sucked. We've finally got him back to where he was before, but talk about a waste of money!

• He once called Clara's pacifier a "fireman thing." I think it was the FIER part in "pacifier" that threw him off. Either way, I loved it.
• He is almost always driving a car around our house. It's so cute.
• When Clara still had the umbilical cord attached to her belly, I explained that when it fell off she would have a belly button like Carter's. He then started saying that Clara was growing her belly button. Hehe.
• He is nothing but sweet to Clara. Two different times now he has gotten mad at me and screamed so loudly that he scared Clara and made her cry. And when I pointed that out, he immediately calmed down and said, "I'm sorry, Clara! I didn't mean to!" Heart melted.

• Oh man, potty training. We are FINALLY done with that chapter in Carter's life, and let me tell you... it was rough. We tried several different times to potty train him before he started preschool, but it never stuck. We tried a naked day. We tried having him sit on the toilet for an hour at a time, and he'd hold it the whole time and then pee in his room. We tried giving treats after every success. But then he started saying, "I don't want a treat," when we tried that as incentive. When we said he couldn't go to preschool unless he was potty trained, he said, "I don't want to go to preschool." And so on and so forth. Every time we tried with him, he'd have a day or maybe two of success, and then he'd utterly refuse. It was so frustrating because we knew he could do it. He just wouldn't. So we put him in a pull-up for preschool and crossed our fingers. And he used the bathroom there! But he still wouldn't at home. *sigh* That was when we got REALLY annoyed. It got so bad that we finally decided to just back off, put him in diapers all the time again, and just wait for him to decide to do it. We just kept encouraging him to go if we wanted to, but he always said no. This proved to still be bad for how we felt about him (so much resentment), but it was good for him for us to remove the power struggle. Then one Friday, a little girl Carter's age saw he was wearing a diaper and said, "He's wearing a diaper. He's a baby!" And while I think that was bratty of her, I used it as an incentive by reminding him of it a few times that day and the next. And whether it was related or not, on Sunday he asked to use the potty. By Monday he was wearing underwear full-time and even pooping on the toilet. (I won't even go into all the details, but suffice it to say that if we had had to change one more poopy diaper in the middle of the night--which he had squished until it was ground into poop sand, getting it all over his fingers and all over in his bed--I think I may have shipped him to his grandparents. This happened twice. SO not okay.) Anyway, here's a cute photo from one of his naked days.

• We had a funny conversation at dinner the other night:
• Aubrey: "Carter, do you know what animal makes honey?"
• Carter: "Uhh, sheep?"
• Me, giving a hint: "Bzzzzz!"
• Carter: "Oh, bees like honey on their bread!"
• One time, when we put him in his room for timeout, Daniel went in and found him sitting in his rocking chair in the middle of the room, his toy gun in his hand. Uhhh...
• My parents got him his own toolbox as an early Christmas present, and he loved it so much he asked if he could sleep with it.

• His preschool went on a field trip to the police station, and when his teacher said that police officers are our friends and can help us, Carter said, "You know who else can help us? Jesus!"
• After preschool one day, he came running up to me so excited. He said, "Mommy, Mommy! I went poo poo on the potty at preschool!" I responded, "Awesome, buddy!" Then his teacher said, as an aside to me, "Yeah, it was in the urinal..."