Carson's Favorite Things

For a while I have been trying to take pictures of Carson’s favorite things. I forget so quickly all the little things Carson has been into and loved. As sad as this sounds, I have a hard time remembering the things that Carson was really into even last year, let alone two years ago. So here are pictures of some of Carson's very favorite things.

Carson recently learned to ride his bike and it is definitely is one of his favorite things to do. He loves to ride and tell me how he can go fast like Lightning McQueen

Carson loves our family walks. One of his favorite things to do on the walks is to drop rocks, sticks, and almost anything he can get his hands on into the irrigation canal. We have to spend 3-5 minutes at every grate so he gets ample opportunity to throw things in the water. He only abandons the grate once we start walking away without him.

I don't know what it is with boys and rocks and dirt. Carson loves to throw rocks and dirt, and doing so is one of his favorite pass times on our walks. Carson has thrown manyof our neighbors' landscaping rocks (sorry neighbors), and I am quite sure that if left him with a pile of rocks and dirt clods that he would be entertained for hours on end.

Just a cute snap shot of Carson on one of our walks.

Okay so it is safe to say that PB&J sandwiches are Carson's favorite food (at least his favorite food that I will let him eat on a regular basis). I think that since he was about 18 months old Carson has asked for a PB&J sandwich for lunch about 95 % of the time.

Carson got hungry Hippos from the Easter Bunny this year and it has been a huge hit. He will play the game over and over and over. He always has to be the orange Hippo because orange is his favorite color (notice the orange shirt in about half these pictures.) Also, every time we play I have to be the pink hippo, because she is the girl.

Carson is obsessed with trains! Seriously, almost every night Carson makes Nate and I promise that we will play trains with him the next day. Sometimes when I'm talking to Nate on the phone at work Carson will ask to talk to him and with out any exception he always asks Nate to play trains with him when he gets home. One of his favorite things to do while playing trains is to hit his little people with the trains and then have the trains apologize and then have them carry the injured to the hospital to get better. Playing trains with Carson is always very entertaining.

Carson loves to help Nate fix things around the house. Whenever there is something to be fixed Nate gives Carson a little tool and lets him think that he is helping. In the above picture Nate is working on his bike and he tipped over Carson's trike and gave him a screw driver so he could fix his own bike. SOOOO Cute!

Carson loves the park. It seems like all the sudden Carson has gotten more coordinated and he can climb almost anything at the park. Carson loves to run and climb and follow all the other kids at the park.

I guess to sum it all up the kid just loves to play and play hard!

Bon Voyage Heather

My sister Heather is sooooo cute with my kids. Carson and Lincoln love her (At least I think Lincoln loves her since he didn’t cry while she held him). They do of course love all their aunts (I don’t want to start any rivalries here), but Heather won Carson over last summer when she played Poison Pinto and Bronco Car with him for many an hour. Anyway, Heather is going away for the summer, and the boys and I will miss her. Have a Great Summer Heather!

Potty Conversations with Carson

Me: “Carson Did you go pee-pee?”

Carson: “No I can’t its stuck in my groinals.”

Carson: “Mommy why does the pee-pee come out of the tiny hole?”

Me: “Because that’s how Heavenly Father made you.”

Carson: “Why he make me like that?”

Me: “Because he did?”

Carson: “It makes heavenly Father happy when pee -pee comes out of the tiny hole?”

Me: “Um sure, (laughing) it makes heavenly father very happy when pee-pee comes out of the tiny hole.”

Dinner at the Olive Garden

By dinner time Friday Nate and I were both fried. I was fried, because I had spent a very discouraging day trying to potty train Carson. Nate was worn out from a stressful day at work. Since neither of us was in the mood to cook we decided that dinner at the Olive Garden would be just the thing to get our Friday back on track. So we packed up the kids and headed out. Of course since we were going out on a Friday at 7:00 pm there was bound to be a wait. The Olive Garden Hostess said 20-25 minutes. We ended up waiting 45minutes annoying yes, but the kids still seemed to be doing great and I was trying to be positive. We were seated by all older couples no one nearby had young kids, which is generally a little bit disconcerting because you know that all nearby noise will be being generated from your booth. We had probably been seated five minutes when Carson started to complain about needing to use the bathroom (all day he didn’t care about going in his diaper, and now it is suddenly mission critical that he use the toilet). So Nate takes him to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom he throws a huge fit and refuses to sit on any other toilet than his one at home. Carson is now determined to not go in his diaper and is crying because he is so uncomfortable. Meanwhile it is approaching Lincoln’s bed time and he is beginning to get really fussy. So Nate and I are passing him across the table taking turns trying to soothe him while one or the other of us scarfs down some salad or a breadstick. Between eating, soothing Lincoln, apologizing to the old people around us for being so noisy, and taking turns running Carson to the restroom (We took him to the bathroom 4 times within a 1/2 hour). I would estimate that Nate and I were probably at the table together a total of 10 minutes and spoke a total of maybe 2 sentences to each other which weren’t about getting Carson to use the potty or different positions to soothe Lincoln. I literally had taken three bites of my food when Nate and I both knew that it was time for us to go. I sensed Lincoln was nearing the stage where he was going to have a full blown melt down and Carson was crying and in deep pain because he needed to use the bathroom but would not use the Olive Garden toilet. So after approximately 30 minutes at the Olive Garden (none of that time enjoyable) we left the restaurant and got in the car just in time for Lincoln to reach his peak of his fussiness. Only one other time in Lincolns short life has he had a breakdown like the one he had on the way home from the Olive Garden. It was the type of crying that you would gladly cut off a digit to make stop or at the very least break several traffic laws to get home as quickly as possible. The good news is that Lincoln was asleep and ready for bed by the time we got home and Carson was able to “hold it”, which I guess is progress. But after a dinner like this I can’t help but miss a little bit the years when Nate and I were married without kids and we could spontaneously go to dinner without worry.