CMT

Who needs to watch the videos when you've got this as your entertainment:

Action Shots

My friend Kim has been asking me to get a few shots of Carson "on the move", so here you go:

Top Ten Signs You Might Be...

...PREGNANT
10. You crave milk.
9. You aren't able to button your jeans.
8. You fall asleep on the couch at 7:50p three nights in a row.
7. You are irritable.
6. You are exceptionally affected by car-sickness.
5. You feel the need to eat every few hours.
4. You have cramps mid-cycle yet brush them off as early PMS.
3. You need less blush because your cheeks are "rosy."
2. You are ten days late but blame work stress.
1. You stop at White Castle on your way in to the office and order cheese burgers (If you can call them that!) to compliment the coffee you have in hand.

I experienced all of the above prior to "confirming" we were expecting. Ross baby #2 is due June 19th. Carson and "TBD" will be 21 months a part. YIKES!

Precious Moments

After a few hours of trying to get my sick little man down for a nap yesterday (This is the kid who has no problem sleeping - EVER.), I finally decided to try something old school -- we snuggled up together in the chair in his room . (I haven't done this with him since he was a few months old and it was 2 AM.) In addition to the rocker-technique, I also juiced Carson with Tylenol and patted his back, his legs, his head....before I knew it, my Tylenol-dosed munchkin was patting my neck, my shoulder, my arm as he fell asleep. What a precious moment!

Sweet Tooth

Carson has his daddy's sweet tooth, that's for sure. I made brownies last week and both Nate and Carson ate more of them than their dinner!

The Vest Brigade

Sport Clips

I thought this was the place where kiddos go to get their hair, but apparently I was slightly off. Sport Clips is a place for guys, not kids. Oh, well - the end result was the same: my baby's curls were lopped off! Sniffle, sniffle.

Waiting patiently for his turn...

...getting antsy...

...under "the knife"...

...the finished product!

Progress

I'd say Carson is making some. (I took this video last weekend, so he's moving even better now!)

Couch Potato

"Chair" potato is more like it!

FINALLY!

Carson took three steps at day care yesterday. He'll be walking soon, maybe!?!

UP-DOWN, up-down

(I can't figure out how to fix the orientation of this video. Oh, well. Too cute not to post!)

Trick or Treat

Well, I'd say Carson's second Halloween was a success. The Cowardly Lion and our little monkey managed to hook up for a picture before we headed over to the Brummonds' house for Trick or Treating like I've never seen it. Since our "neighborhood" doesn't lend itself to candy-grabbing, we started a new tradition this year - Trick or Treating with Sophie and Jonathan! The fact that we had bottled water and Bud Select in the cooler next to our munchkins' sippy cups really made it a success.

Carson was a trooper and managed to pull candy out of candy bowls and to wave to his spectators; Jeremy and Nate managed to drink all the beer in the cooler, and Sara and I managed to capture it all on film. What a great night!


(Luke's first Halloween!)

Red Robin

We decided to eat at Red Robin Friday night before going to our friend's Halloween Party. This was the first time we'd taken Carson there. It's so kid-friendly -- kid-friendly menu, kid-friendly whole milk on tap, kid-friendly atmosphere, kid-friendly balloons in the entry way.....needless to say, we'll be frequenting there often.

Mid-meal, an older couple was seated next to us. Nate quietly mentioned to me, "That guy looks like a real stiff." As we are about to leave the restaurant, Carson decides to whip my Wet Ones travel pack over his head. It landed right in front of stiff guy's plate. He was appalled.

Had we not been at a kid-friendly restaurant, Nate and Mr. Stiff may have gotten in to a fight.

Monkey Business

Carson's school hosted a Halloween party for each of its classes. Following suit with his classroom's name, The Elephants, Carson decided to be a monkey. How cute?!



Carson and his favorite teacher, Deven.

Rubber Ducky

There is something so adorable about a chubby baby playing in the water while his doting father watches on.

Home Sweet Home

There is something so refreshing about seeing the sun rise on a flat corn field, or at least that's what Mommy said when we woke up at Grammie and Paw-Paw's this weekend. (Scratch that - three weekends ago. Get with it, Mommy! This post is so old now!) I had a great time at the farm! I had a cold, so I slept a lot, but I did manage to spent time with Angela and Paxton and Shelley, Mason and Lauren in between napping and dropping food on Grammie and Paw-Paw's kitchen floor. (It needed to be broken in and clumps of Mandarin oranges did just that.)

Oh, crap!

Flash Back: Two weeks ago, I was picking up Carson's play area and saw a stain on the cushion of his personalized green chair. To my dismay, I quickly realized it was cat pee. Monster has done this kind of stuff before -- the last time I was in our storage room I was overwhelmed by the smell of cat pee. Monster had peed on Carson's tummy mat, his pumpkin seat cover and the seat of his Jumperoo. Damn cat. Anyway, we rubbed Monster's face in the dried pee spot and threw him in to "the can" for a week stint. ("The can" is the room that houses Monster's cat box. It has no windows, has a concrete floor and is where our circuit breaker is located. Not exactly prime real estate.)

Fast Forward: After putting Carson down for a nap this morning, I plopped myself on the couch and turned on the TV. The ottoman we have in front of the couch was slightly blocking my view, but I could tell that Monster was doing "something" with one of Carson's "toys," or so I thought. Monster was actually taking a crap on Carson's sippy cup. What?! WHAT?!? I ran after Monster who jetted under our bed. I hauled him out from under the bed and threw him in to "the can" after saying, "Bad kitty!" over 20 times.

To make this story even funnier (not really), I am not feeling well today, so as I cleaned up Monster's mess and chucked my kid's sippy in to the trash, I threw up in my mouth two times.

What a crappy day.

I Wanna Talk About Me

I wanna talk about me, I wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number 1 oh my, me, my,
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see.
I like talkin about you, you, you, you usually, but occasionally
I wanna talk about me! (me, me, me,) I wanna talk about me-e-e. (me, me, me)


ME and my daddy


ME and my mommy


ME


ME


ME


I wanna talk about ME!


ME, ME, ME

(Thank you for that, Carson Ross/Toby Keith!)

MC Hammer

It warms my heart to see Carson playing with the work bench I used to play with at my Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's house.

Push Toys

Who needs them really? Carson has come up with some very creative push toys lately - his gi-normous high chair, the ottoman we use as a coffee table, me.....as I'm cooking dinner, he weasels between my legs and tries to push me across the kitchen. By the way, one of the things I have come to love most about being a mommy is having my little munchkin stand between my legs for no reason other than to be close to me. It's so cute!

Grant's Farm

Today was a first for all three of us - a trip to Grant's Farm. It's closer to our house than the zoo and is much more our speed. I think Carson is still a bit too young to fully enjoy what Grant's Farm has to offer, but regardless, we picked a great fall day for our family field trip.

Carson was oblivious to the giant camel behind us.


I couldn't get Carson to look at me because he was
too busy flirting with the little girl behind us.


My crew looks rough! This was our last photo opp before heading home.

Eating Out

Carson has recently moved away from babbling. He much prefers high-pitched screaming to get our attention. (Hello, Kid. We are paying attention to you!) We decided to eat out on Friday night and as luck would have it, we pretty much had the entire restaurant to ourselves. Maybe I should rephrase that - we had a portion of the "dining room" to ourselves because Carson's screams caused neighboring guests to move into other sections of the restaurant.

Whatever. We enjoyed our meal as a family!




(I promise you my kid has more than one pair of pjs. He just seems to be always be wearing these when I pull out the camera.)

1-yr Stats

Height: 31 inches (90%)
Weight: 25 pounds (80%)
Head: 46.7 centimeters (50-75%)

We got us a "big one!"

Birthday Party

Carson did not overly enjoy his first birthday party -- too many people, too loud, too much going on, etc. As you can see below, he pretty much said, "To hell with this cake!" He did, however, eventually calm down (after Cheerios and milk with Paw-Paw) and enjoyed playing in the mounds of wrapping and tissue paper his gifts produced.







We did get Carson to tie in to his cake on his actual birthday. Just like his mom, he loves butter cream icing!

Pee-wee's Playhouse

Carson's Playhouse has a much better ring to it. (Not to mention that Pee-wee creeps me out.) For those of you with kids, you know how their "loot" begins to consume every open space in your home. As a result, we created a playroom for Carson in our lower level. He was overwhelmed when we first showed it to him, but he's slowly getting the hang of it.

Shift Work

"Big 'ole pile of shiffffttttttt work
11 to 3
3 to 11
11 to 7"

I don't personally work shifts, but I am knee-deep in "shift" work these days! And my blog is suffering because of it, as is the laundry, emailing my friends, time with Nate and Carson.....the list could go on.

(Mom, listen to Kenny Chesney and this will make sense!)

Right of Passage

Don't they all do this?!