Quick Thought

I know I need to do a full blown blog...but sometimes I have a quick thought and I don't want to ever forget it.

We've been decorating for Christmas: lights...check, advent calendar...check, Christmas tree...close enough (it's the three foot fake Karl and I bought in college) check. Carson has been loving it. He's picking up on all the songs. I caught him shaking his hips to Mariah Carey "All I Want for Christmas" in his room the other day. We drove past a nativity in some one's yard and Carson shouted "Look, it's baby Jesus...asleep on the hay."

My absolute favorite this past week is Carson's impression of Santa Clause. Apparently Santa has been spending a little too much time at sea and not at the North Pole because he now says "Yo Ho Ho." (but still with a Santa voice).

When I hear Carson say "Yo Ho Ho" in his best Santa voice...I can't bring myself to tell him it's "Ho Ho Ho." He'll probably figure it out by next Christmas...and then the Santa pirate will be gone forever. Anyway - that's why I have to blog sometimes...I want to remember him saying it forever and I know it will be gone too soon.

Pet Names

No - we are not getting a pet. Not over Karl's dead body. Anyway, when Carson is in a sweet mood, he'll call me by pet names. He usually chooses the ones I call him. Tonight he asked me if he could eat my last strawberry. When I said "sure", he responded "Thank you darling sweetheart." It melts my heart. Even if he is just copying me...I'll take it.

This is in stark difference to his newly learned "bad word". He recently took up the word "Stupid". After using the word to describe none other than yours truly, he and I had a little chat. I haven't heard him use it since. I even heard him start to say it once and then stop and choose a different word. But now he has become a little obsessed about if words are "bad". He and I were driving in the car tonight and he told me he had said a bad word during the day. When I asked him what he had said, he responded "Oh my gosh" and then "that's a bad word". I simply said that if he felt it was bad then he shouldn't say it again. Really...I was just thinking it was kind of cute to hear my 3 year old say "oh my gosh". I called him fancy pants the other night. He informed me that it was a bad word. I'm sure he'll get this down eventually.

Now I'm off to watch Deathly Hallows (in the morning) and prep for Thanksgiving. Here it comes! It's always gone too fast.

Potty Training

A few nights ago, Carson was saying his bedtime prayers and he thanked Heavenly Father that his Aunt Kim and Uncle HL are potty trained. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I finally got through it by thinking of it literally. I too am grateful that Kim and HL (both in their 20's) are potty trained. I probably wouldn't want to have craft nights with Kim if she was peeing her pants all night long.

Halloween

In preparation for Halloween, we headed out to a pumpkin patch. Last year we went to Schnepf Farms but we thought we would try one a little closer (and there was a 2 for 1 Groupon). So we went to MacDonald's Ranch. Carson got to ride a pony named "Cotton Candy." He talked about Cotton Candy the rest of the day.

We took a horse drawn hay ride out to the "pumpkin patch." Apparently that term is used very loosely these days as it wasn't so much an actual patch but an area where the huge truck drops off the pumpkins each morning. But it was cute and Carson still loved it. He was actually most entertained by the horse poop we saw along the road while on the hay ride. See his hay ride joy below.

Carson picked out a little pumpkin and then we went to the petting zoo. Carson heard one of the workers tell another worker that they needed some hay for the rabbits. Before I know it, Carson had taken off. I couldn't figure out what he was doing till I saw him coming back with a big bucket of hay. I guess he remembered he saw one by the goats. He walked in and handed it to the worker. She looked surprised and told him thank you. He was so excited to help.

Then we wandered around and roped some cattle. And by 10 am it was hot and crowded so we got out of there. It was fun. And worth the price since we had the 2 for 1 coupon.

Halloween was marred by the fact that Karl and I were both sick. For Carson's sake, we pulled ourselves together long enough to hit the ward's Trunk or Treat (and don't worry, we tried to be very antisocial as to not spread the bug around). Carson's Halloween costume ideas changed everyday (Super hero, ghost, skeleton, Luigi, fireman, etc.). I had grand plans of making him a skeleton costume - painting the bones on black clothes with glow in the dark paint...but life got away from me and the homemade skeleton just didn't happen. Luckily, we had a friend with a box full of Halloween costumes. So Carson picked out a cute little tiger costume. Now, yes, this went against my feelings of always making your costume (see post from Halloween last year)...but sometimes I just have to let go and know when I'm trying to do too much. Carson had fun at the Trunk or Treat and I loved hearing his sweet little voice say "Trick or Treat" 100 times. Carson and this little fairy became cake walk besties. It was cute.

On the actual Halloween, we headed over to a family party. There were lots of fun mature activities like digging for eyeballs in spaghetti noodles, eating donuts off strings, and bobbing for apples. After I ate my donuts off the string and stood up with my arms raised high in victory, Carson ran up to me and exclaimed "MOM...you did it, I'm so proud of you." Isn't he the sweetest? I love the donut action shot below.

Dun Da Dun Dun

Encore you say? After over a month of the nagging and pleading of my blog followers, I have decided to once again compose. The title of my blog should be sung triumphantly - much like the tune when you finally reach the end of a level on Super Mario Bros (vintage original) and then six fireworks go off because you masterfully landed on the flag pole at a six second mark. That is the same tune (+fireworks) that goes off in my head when I finally blog after being MIA for a month and a half.

So here are some of our happenings in the last month and a half...excluding Halloween as that will be a post all on its own.

Carson got his first shiner. It was an accidental head bonking with another boy. Carson had a lovely bruise.

Carson discovered that underwear fit great on a head. I think every kid puts their underwear on their head at some point...right? Right? Please tell me that I as a kid and now my son are not the only weirdos in the world.

Yesterday, Carson was in rare form. See below.

Story #1: The coloring page he brought home from Nursery was "I Will Take Care of My Body." He and I were reviewing the pictures of what we can do to take care of our bodies. One of the pictures was a boy sleeping but Carson said he was resting. Later, it was his "Quiet Time". To bring the Nursery lesson full circle, I told him he needed a little rest and that it would be taking care of his body. He responded "I'm not taking care of my body. I'm gonna break my body." What? Oh his little rebellions make me laugh.

Story #2: He was riding his bike around and kept telling us he was riding to McDonalds and then he would ride for a little bit and then get off and pretend he was at McDonalds. (I swear we don't eat fast food very much, but something about those Golden Arches calls to Carson...this kid would eat french fries all day every day if he could). Anyway, then he told us he was going to ride his bike to Disneyland. He asked me to come with him, but I was sitting comfortably on a chair on the lawn, enjoying the beautiful weather we are now having, so I didn't really respond and I thought he might just go on playing. Carson asked again. Then he said "Mom, I've asked you twice. I don't want to have to ask you again." Oh, he makes me laugh. So I got up and he rode his bike to Disneyland and I walked. Yes...I am amazing and can walk to Disneyland. Somewhere along the way he got distracted though and it just turned into a race.

Story #3: I asked Carson to clean up his toys. He started to clean and automatically started singing the "Clean Up" song. A few bars in, he stopped and looked up at me. Then he said "I hate that song. I sing it all the days and now I hate it." That song used to really work to get him to help clean up...looks like he's reached the point where the song just annoys him.

Here is a video of Carson singing the ABC's. I am so glad I caught this on tape because he has already figured out that there isn't two K's in the alphabet. He still says B's for his V's, so at least there are still two B's in his alphabet.

We headed up to Flagstaff a few weeks ago to take some family pictures. I just love having family pictures. Growing up, my mom made our family do it every once in a while and it was this horrible event. I can remember complaining and grumbling all the way to Olan Mills. They made me stand on a ladder and pretend that I loved my sisters (just kidding - I did love my sisters, but maybe I wasn't in the mood that day). But now that I'm an adult, I'm the one forcing the family pictures down their throats. Luckily, Carson is only three so I don't have too much opposition yet. We'll see how it goes when he is 15. Back on track - we went and found these beautiful aspen trees and all the leaves were yellow and orange. It was gorgeous. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics (see slide show top left).

When Will I Get Used To This

Proof that I'm still not accustomed to the weather of Phoenix - I stored all of my Halloween decorations in the garage this summer. So when I unpacked my decor tonight, I found three misshapen pumpkin candles and several other decorations with a nice waxy residue all over them. The list of "Reasons Why I Love Phoenix" gets longer everyday.

Auto the Fish

Carson's cousin had a birthday party a little over a month ago. One of the party favors was a gold fish. When they handed it to Carson he was SOOOO excited. I was less excited...I think I mumbled "Is that real?" through gritted teeth and a fake smile. I was just thinking about how I now had to go buy a fish bowl and fish food...and whatever else a goldfish needs. So we got home and I put the fish in a glass kitchen bowl. We thought he would die so we didn't want to spend the money on fish supplies. But after a month, he was still alive. So last week we finally bought a tank. Carson named the fish Auto, after the gold fish in the book "A Fish Out of Water." Carson's reference to this book has made it easier for him to follow the feeding rules " Never more than a spot, or something may happen...you never know what." (In the book the little boy feeds his fish too much and then the fish can't stop growing and gets huge.) Carson loves his fish. He eats several of his meals by his fish. He feeds the fish all by himself and talks to him a few times a day. Luckily, Karl is willing to change the fishes water...I'm pretty much unwilling to handle anything that involves poop (besides human babies of course).

Carson is now going potty and getting dressed all by himself. While it is very convenient, he often ends up looking like this - shirt tucked in to the underwear.

We had a Woodard girl's craft day a while back. We all worked on these I Spy quilts. Carson loves his and makes sure we call it a "quilt", not a blanket. I think it's pretty fun.

We got our car AC fixed...the money we had to fork out seemed well worth it after driving around with out AC. I still can't believe how hot it is. The high for the next three days is 106...crazy. I'm ready to decorate for Halloween and it's 106 degrees out.