Trick or treat!

We had a very fun second Halloween with Little C. He went trick or treating for the first time. Just a spin around the cul de sac with a few friends, but I think it was a hit!

Look who's talking!

All of a sudden Little C has decided he wants to use words to communicate! I know, I know...I've posted similar announcements in the past, but the brief phenomenons never lasted and the talking was never consistent enough to make me feel like my child could 'talk'. Even now, he's much more of a repeater than an initiator when it comes to talking. He'll point, and then when Mr. C or I say what he's pointing at he'll repeat it (or repeat the first syllable). 'Co' for 'cold', 'ma' for milk', etc. As a result many of his monosyllable words have multiple meanings. For instance, 'ba' means bottle or bath or bottle or even bye depending on the scenario. 'Chee' means the dairy product or the camera (because we always tell him to 'say cheese' when we pull out the camera). 'Tee' means teeth, the letter T, or a tree. And the list goes on, but oddly enough, the one syllable word we have been dreading the most has yet to pop up in his limited vocabulary. That would of course be the word 'no'! :) He's gotten quite good at shaking his head, though, so I don't know how much longer we'll be able to dodge that bullet. Still, it's so nice to know he can actually speak! I'm sure in a year or two I will be begging him for some quiet time, but for now I am reveling every little word crumb he throws our way :)

Just a spoon full of sugar

Little C has been fighting off the crud for what seems like forever now. He is supposed to take a decongestant twice a day to keep all this crud from turning into a sinus infection, but he has absolutely developed a black belt in medicine refusal. It takes both of us holding him down and sometimes holding his nose to get him to open his mouth. Once we get the medicine IN his mouth, it usually gets spit back in our face.

Tonight however, we discovered the power of candy-bribery. I had a dum-dum in my mouth during all this hooplah (hard candies help when I'm feeling nauseous), and when I took it out to avoid getting impaled by the stick as he was squirming he opened his mouth REALLY wide wanting the sucker. We seized the opportunity and squirted in the medicine then immediately followed it with the sucker. It took two seconds to get him to take a syringe full of medicine without spilling so much as a drop! I couldn't believe it. He cried when we took the sucker away, but we let him suck on it long enough he definitely (hopefully) has figured out there is a reward to taking his medicine. And yes, I will be stocking up on dum-dums for as long as we have to force him to take this medicine.

So, add this to list of things I swore I would never do as a mom - bribing my kid with candy to get him to take medicine!

Don't want to forget...

Little C has been achieving all sorts of seemingly small accomplishments, but when I think of them all together, it's pretty impressive. Well, at least to his momma :) So I wanted to list them down so I wouldn't forget.

At 17 months, he can:

• Eat with a spoon, although it's still a messy process (still working on forks)
• Eat off a plate (until he's done and starts playing)
• Eat at the table in a big chair (likes to do this for his snack-time)
• Drink from a sippy cup and out of a straw and out of a regular cup (in the bath tub)
• Spin
• Stand on one foot
• Flash-dance (we'll say 'do the feet!', and he marches in place as fast as he can like the move from flash-dance)
• Name his belly-button, tummy, nose, eyes, mouth, ears, head, hair, and feet/toes.
• Ride the parachute at gymboree AND wait his turn for his gymbo stamps (this is huge, we've been going to gymboree for over three months and this just started happening last week).
• Sign, 'more', 'all-done', 'please', 'apple', 'milk', 'drink' and is very good at pointing to what he wants and vigorously shaking his head 'no' when he doesn't want something.
• Say 'kitty', 'outside', 'gone-gone' and 'bye-bye' with moderate consistency.
• Say 'mommy', 'daddy', 'pretty' and 'hi' on rare occasions.
• Make the elephant noise (with arm movement), monkey noise and 'meow' for cat noise.
• Crawl up on the couch/chairs/ottomans by himself
• Move a chair over to the counter and crawl up on it to see what I'm doing when I'm working in the kitchen
• Climb up and down stairs by himself (if thw steps are small enough he can come down the steps without eveing having to sit down to scoot)
• Climb up and down ladders (with a spotter)
• Go all over the playground equipment and down the slide at the park by himself (have to REALLY watch him to keep him from trying to go off the side of the tall equipment like the big kids, though).
• Bring me his shoes/socks/a certain toy when asked
• Finger paint and scribble with crayons and markers
• Knows how his shoes and socks go on his feet and tries to put them on himself (he still needs a little help, though).
• Can 'brush' his hair and 'brush' his teeth (needs help to actually do these things, but he likes to do it himself, when we're done).
• Can put blocks into a square hole, we're still working on simples puzzles and shape sorters, though.
• Can take lids off and put lids on tupperware containers
• Can stack the rings on the ring stacking toy (not necessarily in the right order, though)
• Can 'blow' on things, like food that is too hot, and can blow into a whistle
• Loves to crawl on Stephen's back for pony-rides
• Knows what it means to 'scrubby-scrub our hands' and can wash his own hands as long as I turn the water on for him and give him a little soap because he can't reach those things.
• Knows what it means to 'shut the door' and can help me shut the fridge, shut the door, shut the dishwasher, etc.
• LOVES dogs
• Reacts VERY badly to mosquito bites
• Is possibly allergic to our cats, and definitely seems to have seasonal allergies.

Ok, those last three aren't accomplishments so-to-speak, but I wanted to remember them :)

Stick 'em up.

Stickers stickers stickers. Little C is obsessed with them these days. His favorite place to put them? On his belly button, which he just recently discovered. He's also just recently discovered other people have belly buttons, so don't be surprised if the next time you see him he tries to lift up your shirt to see if you have one too.

The best trips are the ones you don't plan.

So a few weeks back we had a rather eventful Friday for our quiet little group. A water main in our area broke early that morning and we woke up without water. We did alright for the day, but as the sun set and the water company couldn't give us an estimated time of repair completion, we decided to head to Mr. C's parent's for an impromptu visit.

With the car packed and the munchkin loaded, I grabbed a pacifier for the car trip and out of shear habit turned on the faucet to rinse it off. Lo and behold, the water was back on, but by then, we decided we were headed to Victoria anyway.

I had a million things I had wanted to get done that weekend, and with our free weekends between now and the baby's arrival quickly diminishing, it was more than a little frustrating to feel like we were giving one up, but as it turned out we didn't give anything up at all. We had a fantastic weekend; Mr. C got to watch the Texas football game with his dad instead of here by himself, Little C had a great visit with his Grammy and Grandpa, and I actually got to sleep in on Saturday! With another opportunity for a visit the Mr. C's family several months out, it was, without a doubt, the best possible way we could have spent the weekend.

The most amazing part of the weekend was that it turned out to be a family friend's last weekend as the pastor of Mr. C's childhood church in Victoria. Pastor Bill is in failing health, and so the service was more than just a celebration of his career at that church, it was really a celebration of his entire career and of his life in general. I don't personally know him well, but on the Sundays we have visited over the past few years, he's given some very memorable sermons. I know he's meant a lot to Mr. C's family and to Mr. C and it was a very emotional service to say the least. Mr. C got to take Little C up for the last children's sermon Pastor Bill did and I'm so glad that we were able to be a part of that service and join so many other in saying goodbye to this amazing man.

On our way back home that weekend, Mr. C and I couldn't help but look back at the way things played out and wonder if God didn't have just a little bit to do with our last minute trip. Maybe He's trying to show me that the most rewarding and worth-while adventures in life are the ones you don't plan for :)

MOPS

My sister-in-law turned me on to MOPS (Mothers of preschoolers), and I just have had nothing but good things come from my involvement in this organization. It's an amazing ministry that is designed specifically to support and nurture moms. There are MOPS groups all over the world, and if you are a mom-to-be, new mom, old mom, stay-at-home mom, work-at-home mom, or any kind of mom, and looking for a group of women to connect with, you can learn more at http://www.mops.org/.

If you happen to live in or near Northwest Houston, check out http://www.trinitymops.org/!! We have only just begun the year, and still have room for more moms - we'd love to meet you and so come check us out! ;)

Trip to SA and 1st day of Mother's Day Out.

Last month took a weekend trip to San Antonio to celebrate my cousin Casey's wedding. So happy for him and his new wife Kristina! It was a quick trip, but the wedding was wonderful and we managed to get in a good visit with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their two adorable girls who graciously put our motley crew up for the weekend and provided child care while we enjoyed the reception sans Little C. I think we only left a quarter of our belongings behind which is a far cry better that what normally gets left in our wake.

After church we headed over to my cousin Sarah's house for a fun wedding/birthday celebration lunch. We had the opportunity to catch up with all sorts of family we hadn't seen in ages and of course show the little guy off. I don't' know how she fit us all 45 of us in her house and backyard, but she did it and we had a blast!!

We made it home Sunday just in time to start getting geared up for Carter's first day at Mother's Day Out the next day. According to the slip that came home with him, "he ate all of his lunch" (the teacher recommended I pack more next time...go figure, he never eats that well for me!), "he only cried for 10 minutes when first dropped off" (all 10 of which, I was standing outside the door crying myself), and "he loves playing in the kitchen" (maybe we have a budding chef on our hands, wouldn't that be nice!!).

He did not take a nap, and even though the teacher assured me that was pretty normal when they are not used to a nap-mat setting, it meant I picked up a SUPER cranky and over-tired child and the rest of the day was kind of a bear. I've started putting his nap mat in his crib so he'll associate it with sleeping - lets keep our fingers crossed he gets a little more sleep next Monday!

While he was in 'school' I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, just little errands and some light housework....I kept looking at the clock, eager to pick him up!! I'm glad we are starting him in the program now, since I know these days will be like gold when the new addition arrives, but it's still a hard adjustment. One of the biggest hurdles is having to take him down to one-nap-a-day a little earlier than I would like, but it makes the most sense in order to keep his schedule consistent.  I tried to take some pictures that morning, but we were running a little late and my camera flash was acting up, and this is the best I could do. I'll have to take more some other Monday and we'll just pretend it's his 'first day' :)

Sorry, no pics for the next few posts...we have our eyes on a new computer, but in an attempt to be good fiscally responsible people, we are holding off on the purchase for another month or so, and until then, I'm on Mr. C's work laptop which they apparently frown upon employees uploading tons of memory space worth of photos to. So, until the new computer arrives, you'll just have to use your imagination as to how adorable the munchkin is and how incredibly exciting all of these little adventures are :)