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