Carson is 10 months

The big news is that Carson is on the move! Just in the last week or so, he’s shown increased interest in getting places and he loves to practice walking. No crawling – (I’m thinking he might skip that step) but he scoots on his bottom and has gotten pretty quick. When he sees something he wants, he heads right to it and nothing can stop him. One of his favorite things to do is to pull up on your fingers and “walk” holding your hands. He is so proud of himself for learning this new skill as you can tell by the excitement in his face. He loves his walker too and enjoys playing basketball with the small hoop that Santa brought him.

He’s still a super happy and flexible kiddo and is doing better in regards to the stranger anxiety of last month. He enjoyed having family here for Christmas and New Years, but mom is still his favorite person in the whole wide world. I have to say it’s kinda nice to be worshiped and adored in this way, especially since I know it won’t last forever. I love that it’s so easy to make him laugh and entertain him…little does he know his mom isn’t really much of a comedian.

Carson eats even more table food now that he has four teeth, and has learned how to say “more” in sign language even though he doesn’t do it consistently. If we’re not paying attention or giving him what he wants, he often lets out a piercing squeal, which I’m sure all the dogs in the neighborhood appreciate. He doesn’t say “Ma ma ma” as much anymore, but does like to babble and coo. He’s currently nursing in the morning, before naps and at night, unless he wakes in the middle of the night, which he does half the time now after having visitors. Given that we’ll be going to Austin in a month, we’ll wait until after our travels to have him “cry it out” if he is still waking. We did have babysitters quite a bit this month for holiday gatherings and dinners, but we planned our evenings so that I could put Carson down for bed before leaving. That worked fine most of the time, but it would be nice to have a little more independence and freedom.

He’s very interested in big brother’s toys, especially Collin’s new pirate ship and game pieces. Now that he’s on the move we have to be much more careful of leaving small pieces out and he’s often a distraction when we’re trying to play a game or build something since he pretty much wants what Collin or mom has. In addition to his basketball hoop, his new activity table is a favorite toy. While mom is cooking (sometimes with the help of Collin), he enjoys banging on pots, bowls and the salad spinner and LOVES taking things out of the dishwasher. Pretty much everything is a drum or drumstick for making music. How blessed we are to have such a happy boy!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

Guess what Carson got for Christmas? You're right...believe it or not his two front teeth came in on Christmas Even and Christmas Day!

We were very excited to stay home for Christmas for the first time in three years and have family come visit us. Boy, did we have family here! The week of Christmas Tracy’s parents came to visit. We didn’t do too many activities…a nice dinner out one night and a trip to Mike’s office and the playground at Centennial Park but mostly just spent time at home, baked cookies and enjoyed each other’s company. Click HERE for more pictures.

I was afraid that the Christmas tree was going to be a problem with an 10-month old, but since Carson was just starting to move it wasn’t too bad. Collin was very excited about Santa and presents and this year wanted everything “cool” he saw in the stores. On Christmas Eve morning Collin got dressed all by himself before he came in our room (a first!) since Santa mentioned in his letter that Collin was improving on getting dressed by himself.

We went to 4:00 mass on Christmas Eve and had lasagna for dinner afterwards. Despite the fact that we got there at 3:30 for a 4:00 service, the church was packed and we sat on the stairs in the balcony. After signing some Christmas carols, we each were allowed to open one gift Christmas Eve – Collin picked out the gifts he made Mike & I for us to open. Since I opened my real gift from him (a beaded wreath necklace that he made at school) early so I could wear it daily (he would bring it to me and remind me if I forgot to put It on), he drew me a cute picture of me that I opened. Collin wanted to put out 4 cookies for Santa (very generous) and carrots and celery for the reindeer.

Christmas morning was great and we enjoyed opening presents. Carson stayed up for most of it and was probably interested in the wrapping paper as much as anything else, but did like his Activity table and basketball net. Collin’s favorite gift was a pirate ship from Nana & Papa, but he got some transformers and other nice gifts too. We had Turkey & fixings on the good china for Christmas dinner...a group effort.

December & School Christmas activities

One of the many favorite things about Christmastime is listening and singing along to Christmas music. This is even more fun when you have a four-year old learning the words to the songs you’ve sung for years. Collin’s favorite songs were “Rudolf”, “Frosty the Snowman” and “Jingle Bells”. He learned both verses of “Away in the Manger” for school and sung them with his class in the school Christmas concert, along with other songs they sung as a large group.

This December seemed a bit hectic even though we didn’t travel, probably because we were gone for Thanksgiving and I didn’t even begin to think about Christmas until I finished school the week of December 12th. Collin and I decorated the house over many days, since he enjoyed getting out decorations as if we were opening presents each day. The last week of school, Lori, a mom of Collin’s classmate Bobby, hosted her annual Gingerbread party in her garage, which was a lot of fun. Lori makes the gingerbread houses herself and each of the kids brings a bag of candy to decorate their own house.

Carson gets his bangs cut

We can't stand it any longer...I didn't want to cut his hair until his 1st birthday, despite the girl comments. However, I wanted him to be able to see and not always have hair in his eyes so we trimmed his bangs. It was a group effort - I used the scissors, Mike held his hair & Collin took some pictures. We have a before but not an after picture.

Church Christmas Party/ St. Nick’s Day

Our church Christmas party was held on St. Nick’s day this year, which was pretty cool and made for an extra special Saturday. St. Nick didn’t forget us this year – Mike and I both got Hallmark ornaments as tradition holds and the boys each got Advent Calendars and Collin got a manger book too.

Our church party is lots of fun…Santa sings, plays guitar and tells stories! Many of you may not know that Santa is such an accomplished musician, but his singing is very good and Collin and Carson both enjoyed it. How cute is Carson looking at Santa in amazement, trying to figure how what he was.
It was a pretty cold day/evening, but Santa was also scheduled to be at East Cobb Park that evening for the Christmas tree lighting. It was nothing for Santa as he is used to much colder at the North Pole, but cold for us in the south. Regardless, I chose to take the boys to the park with some neighborhood friends (Kim & Colleen and kiddos) while Mike attended his Rotary Club Christmas party. Mike enjoyed a gourmet catered meal and black tie event while I ate some of a cold hot dog in jeans and a sweatshirt. I was happy to be with the boys and friends and figured we had quite a few babysitter nights in December for various holiday parties, where we had to go late so I could put Carson to bed myself. Next year I should probably attend his fancy party, but I got a pass with the baby this year

Carson is 9 Months

Carson’s 9 month birthday was the same as Thanksgiving this year which is pretty special. I can’t even begin to mention everything we’re thankful for this year, but we’d probably top the list with having a healthy well-mannered baby and our health and that of our families.
The biggest change in Carson this month (particularly over the last two weeks), has been the onset of some major stranger anxiety. He’s always been a mommy’s boy and prefers me to anyone else, but he used to go to new people very easily. He will still smile at others, but if he has any sense that I might be leaving or that he might be passed off he gets very nervous and grabs on to me tightly. His wrists move vigorously as another sign of nervousness or excitement. This month was also more difficult because we all were a little sick, with a bad cough and stuffiness. Carson was waking much of the night and wanted to be held a lot of the day.

Carson still will not take a bottle (I’ve given up), but he drinks from a sippy cup pretty well, usually just water with meals. He has a good appetite and eats quite a bit of real food – cereal with applesauce in the morning, lots of crackers any time he’s in his high chair, and vegetables and cereal for dinner. He gets more table food than Collin did at this age, and his favorite is French Fries…he IS Mike’s son too, despite of his physical resemblance to me!

Carson really enjoys music, and likes to play with instruments, banging on his toy xylophone or tambourine. Collin has been trying to teach him how to play “Hot Cross Buns”. He loves to clap to the music and seems to react more to songs he likes when we’re driving. He also enjoys throwing objects on the floor to watch mommy pick them up.

He’s still happy sitting and not moving. He will occasionally scoot and pull himself to something he’s interested in but doesn’t seem to have much interest in crawling. I think God is waiting for my school to be over (only a few weeks left - yippee!!) before life gets more difficult.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in St. Louis this year, since we made a switch to be with my family (& Rob, Kristen & Owen) in Dallas last year. We had turkey dinner at Mike’s Aunt Sharon’s house with the full gang, Carson’s was the THIRD youngest baby boy in the family on his 1st Thanksgiving! His cousin Drew is three months old, and Mike’s cousin Marcie had a baby boy Louie just a month ago. The family is growing fast, as the last time we were here for Thanksgiving Collin was the only child, and Karen was pregnant with Sophie. Now between Mike & his two sisters, there are six kids under 4 ½ with another on the way this spring...it’s nice that all the cousins are close in age.

The day after Thanksgiving we attended the Belleville Santa Claus parade, with bands, and candy thrown, and you know who. It was a little chilly, but the kids had a blast. Friday night we had Grandma watch the boys and went out with just the adults siblings – a welcome rteat. Saturday we went to St. Louis after Carson’s nap and picked up MY Grandma and took her over to my Uncle Charles' house for a nice lunch, then my cousin Caitlin’s to visit. My grandma did great getting around and I was so happy to be able to have her out and about and spend time together, especially since she fell and broke her hip just a few days later. We are all praying for her continued improvement in physical therapy so she can be released from the hospital and hopefully go back to her Independent Living home.

We also were in town to celebrate our nephew Drew’s baptism on Sunday, and we are the proud Godparents! It made for a late arrival into Atlanta (2 AM) to stay for the party at Laura & Tim’s, but definitely worth it, and we’re sure the traffic on 75 was a lot lighter in the middle of the night than it would have been earlier on a busy holiday travel day.

Fall 2008

This fall seemed to require a little more coordinating than other years. The transition from one to two kids was easier in some ways, partially because Carson has been such a good baby. However, making time for the things I needed to get done with a baby who needs to nap, a preschooler who no longer naps was sometimes a challenge. I think God knew what he was doing by delaying my graduation until this fall even though I was so set on finishing before the baby arrived. Having my Program Evaluation course to focus on after I took Collin to school encouraged me to come straight back home to get Carson down for his nap and work on my school. There was definitely some stress associated with being enrolled in four hours of graduate work but I really enjoyed working with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta on the Fit Kids program and having something academic to focus on.

I added several new Mary Kay teammates this semester, despite not spending a lot of time on my Mary Kay business. Having these sharp women on my team encouraged me to stay involved with Mary Kay, and I even did my annual Holiday Open House (with mom’s help while Mike was in Korea) for my customers.

We enjoyed watching Collin playing soccer, but weekends were definitely more busy this year as Mike also played on an ALTA tennis team most Saturdays. Collin and I both appreciated him be able to play more independently for “playdates” which we did at least once a week in the afternoons. Wednesday afternoons were soccer practice at 4 PM and then meeting friends at the “concert park”. We still made time to go to the ZOO with friends and the Children’s Museum during the week, and take trips to Phillidelphia and St. Louis to visit family.

We love the beauty of Atlanta's fall colors, and despite the dumping of leaves from our many fall trees, enjoy running around our natural yard with Collin. I am very excited to be done with school, and have more time for the boys, Mary Kay. other interests!

Halloween

This Halloween was a little different from others because we were in Philadelphia for Mike’s cousin Joe’s wedding. Collin was very excited to be with his cousins for Halloween, but he did ask a number of times, “What about my friends” as we prepared him for the trip, explaining that we were traveling for Halloween instead of our normal neighborhood parade. We got to go Trick-or-Treating in a beautiful neighborhood in NJ where the bride (Donna’s) parents hosted a very nice party in lieu of a rehearsal dinner. Collin dressed as Darth Vader as you can see and Carson was a bear. It was very special to be able to trick or treat with all the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Philadelphia

Since the Voegtle clan was all traveling to New Jersey for Joe’s wedding, we decided to make a trip out of it and stay a few extra days to see the city and visit with everyone. Mike has made numerous trips to Philly for work, but this was my first time. On Thursday we traveled into the city with Bill & Doris to see the historic sites, including Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. But the first priority was to get Philly Cheese Steaks from Pat’s per Mike’s recommendation. Normally I would love the opportunity to each lunch outside, but it was pretty cold! We met up with Karen, Greg & the girls for a nice dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The Philly’s won the World Series that night, so even though we just watched the game from the hotel room, it was kinda neat to be there.

Friday was Halloween and we decided to take the kids into the Children’s Museum, which had been recently moved into a beautiful historic building built for one of the first World’s Fairs in the US. The kids loved it of course. After lunch we drove over to a new hotel in New Jersey that was closer to the wedding. Here we met up with Tim & Laura and got to meet our nephew Drew for the first time. The wedding was very nice and the reception was at the same location, very convenient. Collin seemed to have fun dancing. He wanted to dance with his cousins, but Sophie just wanted to play “Ring Around the Roses”. He got a little frustrated and said, “No, real dancing”. He did fairly well through dinner considering his dad was sitting away from us at the head table. Sunday was our commute home, much longer than we planned due to airplane delays. Overall, a great trip and we are so happy for Joe & Donna!

Carson is 8 months

THIS is the best age – and he’s SUCH a happy baby! He smiles so much of the time, and flirts with anyone he sees. He’s DEFINITELY a momma’s boy…he gets very concerned about me leaving the room. One of the best things this month has been watching Carson bond more with daddy now that he’s so much more interactive. He gets excited when Mike comes home and is happy to see him, and may reach out for him to hold him, but then he wants to come right back to mommy.

Carson is sitting very well unsupported, and loves to flap is arms up and down. When Carson is nervous or excited he does a strange twisting motion with his wrists – usually several times a day. He still doesn’t like to be on his tummy but he does push himself up pretty well when he lets me put him on his stomach. He shows no interest in moving too much so I doubt he’ll be crawling any time soon which is fine with me…I doubt there’s any correlation between eventual athletic ability and the age of first crawling. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes straight to walking. He pulled himself up for the first time on Halloween, just a few days after his 8-month birthday when we were at the Children’s museum in Philadelphia.

We were able to expand his diet again after we got the constipation back in control. I didn’t realize I really had the perfect baby…happy almost all the time and I didn’t even have to change dirty diapers but once a week. We’re going through many more diapers now, which is normal. Carson eats much more adult food that Collin did at this age…he pretty much wants to eat everything we’re eating. One of our favorite snacks to eat together is crackers and hummus. We sit on the back porch and eat this together with his Bumbo seat on the table. He eats all his meals in his high chair now, since he barely fits in the Bumbo anymore. For breakfast he usually eats cereal and applesauce (or fruit), then vegetables and cereal for dinner plus some little table food, like pieces of bread or Cheerios. He loves to chew on apples or pears. He’s nursing much less and quicker…first thing in the morning when he wakes, then at 10 & 2 before naps & the at 8 before bedtime. He likes to snack on Melba toast which keeps him occupied pretty well – a great eater overall. He got his first two teeth (on the bottom) this month.

Carson enjoys watching his big brother and is easily entertained, laughing at almost anything, especially peak-a-boo or other such games. He still wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth, and wants to grab anything you’re holding, especially keys or pens. Carson is pushing himself up higher now, but still no signs of wanting to crawl as he only tolerates being on his tummy for a few minutes at a time. He just learned to clap which is really fun! He claps when he sees someone else clapping, or when he hears the “Happy and you know it” song.

Carson is 7 Months old

OK- 7 Months is for sure better than 6 months. Even though it makes me sad that we’re over half way through his first year, it’s so great that he can sit up BY HIMSELF, which he’s just started to do in the last week or so. Sitting up unassisted and not being able to crawl does have to make this one of the best ages. Making some noises, but not being too noisy is another reason 7 months is so great. Carson can say “Ma, Ma, Ma” and “Ba, Ba, Ba”. I am inferring that “Ma Ma” is of course for me and “Ba Ba” means Big Brother. He may not attach any meaning to his babbles yet, but he does seem to say “Ma Ma” when he’s hungry or if he’s missing me (which is pretty much any time I’m not in his eyesight or holding him). Carson is definitely a mamma’s boy. Since I’ve barely left him (he STILL won’t take a bottle), I am afraid it will be even harder as we move into the stranger anxiety stage. He’s friendly and smiley to others, but he still does best with mom. I have started having our neighbor across the street and her daughter come over to babysit for our near-by tennis matches on Thursdays. One of these days Mike & I will make it out alone for an evening also.

Even though I’ve barely been away from him, I really don’t feel the need to be, which is sorta strange. Sure, I like to be able to have my time on my bike & to be able to play tennis but I think it’s since Carson is such a happy baby I want even MORE time with him rather than less. I’m attributing most of it to temperament, but also understanding him better since I’m home with him, the differences in a 2nd time mom of being more relaxed and having already given up your kid-free freedom, which is a HUGE adjustment the first time around.

We had expanded Carson’s diet to include carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas, applesauce and oatmeal cereal until he had trouble with constipation (I guess I can talk about this since he’s a baby and the purpose of my blog is to keep family and friends updated on our lives). He hadn’t gone but a few times since we started solids, (fairly common when introducing solids to babies), and went 8 days without going until he was really uncomfortable last Sunday. Since he barely ever cries or is fussy we knew something was wrong. He woke at midnight and I fed him and was very warm. He fell asleep in the car on the way to take Collin to school, and when he woke around 11 AM, he still hadn’t gone and had a 102 fever. I took him right to the doctor so we had to do all the yucky stuff to get him to go. The doctor gave orders to cut out all cereal and applesauce from his diet and feed him only prunes, apricots and pears, and we were to give him Miralax at every meal. We’re starting to get things under control a bit but he was sleeping through the night fine until we stopped cereal for dinner. Oh well, hopefully we’ll get there again!

He’s a pretty messy eater as you can see and wants to feed himself even though he doesn’t have the skills to do so neatly. I usually provide him his own spoon and since we go straight to bath after dinner I’m not so concerned with keeping the food away from him. He still doesn’t enjoy being on his tummy too much, but he’s able to push himself a little farther. We enjoy spending time together on the back porch and practice our tummy time together. When Carson’s had enough exercise I let him sit up while I do my yoga. Rossi is a welcomed visitor since Carson loves to watch the cats!

Brothers' Bath Time

Now that Carson is almost able to sit up on his own the boys can begin to take a bath together. We still have Carson in a blow-up tub, but he's way too big for the infant bath tub.

This looks like the beginning of many fun bath times together.

Collin's 4th Birthday Party

Per Collin’s request we had his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. We moved it a week later since many of his friends were traveling on his birthday for Labor Day weekend. It was probably not the most relaxing of settings, since it was busier than I had EVER seen it and there were several other parties there, but Collin had a good time and that’s all that matters. It was great to have so many good friends there!

Age four is exhausting, but a fun age. It’s amazing how much he synthesizes and can tell us about his day or what happened. We still get “Daddy, play with me” or “Mommy, play with me” so we’re hoping he begins to play more independently. He is a very social child and always wants a friend to come over. He has an imaginary friend, Max who often plays with us but he’d prefer another
Collin loves to pretend, play chase or Star Wars with daddy and play games with mommy. He is very interested in magic, enjoys riding his bike and playing baseball and likes to watch TV or movies – Calliou, Franklin, Dora and The Backyardigans are some of his favorite shows we see “On Demand”.

Collin’s Birthday Weekend

Our great start to Collin’s birthday start was a call from Aunt Laura after midnight on Friday night informing us that they were headed to the hospital with contractions. We were headed downtown Saturday morning to Mike’s office and a parade when we got a call from Aunt Karen with news that we had a new nephew!

Drew William was born August 30th at at 7:26 in the morning weighing 8 pounds and measuring 21 inches. Collin is excited to have a boy cousin since all his St. Louis cousins are girls and we think it’s neat that Carson will have a cousin with the same middle name just six months younger. The Atlanta zoo has a panda (Yang Yang) born on the same day as little Drew. It's amazing how little pandas are when they're born and how fast they grow. You can see on Webcam here.

It was a Star Wars weekend for Mike & Collin. Mike had some work to do on his new office space before the painters can start so we all went downtown to see the place and then to view the Dragon Con parade. It’s not exactly the crowd I could see myself hanging with, but we knew Collin would be excited to see the Storm Troopers. Personally, I would have rather seen more Disney & Sesame Street characters (Donald & Cookie Monster were there) all of the other crazy characters we saw, but it was somewhat entertaining and definitely something different to do on a Saturday morning. We went out to lunch, then to church Saturday night since Collin didn’t want to go on his birthday, which fell on a Sunday this year.

For his birthday breakfast he had a Cinnamon Roll with a candle to blow out, we opened gifts and then he and Mike spent most of the day playing with his new Star Wars figures, ships and Transformers. I wasn’t sure who was enjoying it more – Mike or Collin, but by the end of the weekend Mike had enough and Collin still wants to play Star Wars non-stop. Collin is super excited to have his OWN Star Wars figures since he can only play with dad’s toys with Dad. It will be interesting to see how I’ll be roped into playing Star Wars since I used to have an excuse that I wasn’t allowed to play with daddy’s toys. After lunch Mike took Collin to see the Clone Wars movie, and then after Carson woke from his nap we went to the playground to play soccer and for Collin to ride his bike. We went to dinner at Cheescake Factory. We’ll do his friend party next weekend, since many people were traveling this weekend for the Labor Day holiday.

Collin’s first week of school and soccer

It seems we’ve catapulted into fall right away. The weather is cooler and some leaves are falling already (probably because of the drought), school started for Collin & myself and Collin is playing his first organized sport – SOCCER. I guess that makes me a soccer mom – wow, now all I need is a mini van. I never thought I’d say this but I could certainly see great use for one now that I have two car seats in the back seat and friends to carpool with but no room for another car seat.

Anyway, Collin loves school and even his new teachers, especially Ms. April. When I picked him up after his first week on Thursday he said, “Mom, I wish I could go to school everyday.” He’s going four days this year (Mon-Thurs) which gives us Friday to get together with friends or do something together. There are days he wants to stay home and not have to go (especially having new birthday toys at home, but overall he really likes it).

Wednesdays at 4:00 we have soccer practice (before the East Cobb Park concert in the park), and Saturday, Sept.13th will be his first game. Last week we searched for shin guards and cleats. Daddy even surprised Collin by coming to his first practice and was able to witness his first goal. He did pretty well, but seemed to fall down quite a bit as you can see on this video clip.
The Friday before school started we went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens with friends from the neighborhood, Julia, Katherine & their mom Lauren as you can see in the photos.