It Is a Job

Brett got a job!! After several months of job searching, Brett finally got a job that he really wanted.  He will be working as a prosecutor for Maricopa County.  We are really excited about it and thankful the job search is over.

To celebrate we planned a quick trip to Chicago to see Brett's family.  Brett and Carter flew out Wednesday and I followed on Friday after my last day of work on Thursday!  It was a lonely two days for me without my boys.  I have only been away from Carter one night since he was born, so two whole days was rough.  Flying without Carter was nice though :)  Brett flew back to Phoenix this morning because he starts work tomorrow, and Carter and I are staying in Chicago until Saturday.  Carter gets to spend 10 days with the grandparents; they might pack him up and gladly ship him off.  He has been really good and wants to spend most of his time outside since it is 20 degrees cooler here.  Carter also got to meet Brett's brother's dog, Nemie.  Carter loved him.  He would say "sit, sit" when he wanted her to go away.  He would hold out his hand covered in whatever he just ate for Nemie to lick off and giggle.  Carter liked chasing Nemie, but didn't like it when Nemie chased him back.  They were really cute to watch together.

Carter and I will be home for 10 days before we are gone for another 10 days in Utah.  We kept putting off visiting our families during the summer because the job situation was up in the air, so we are getting our visits in now.

Party!  If anyone is around Phoenix I am now home all the time!

Scarred for Life?

After watching Toy Story 3 a million times (only slight exaggeration), I decided to branch out Carter's movie viewing choices.  And because I'm cheap and don't want to buy movies he doesn't like, I headed to the library.  I cam home with Cars 2, Monster's Inc. and Tarzan.  I let Carter pick and he eventually looked at Monster's Inc. the longest, so I went with that.

He watched it over Friday and Saturday and seemed to like it, meaning he sat on the couch and watched without wandering away.  Sunday afternoon we needed a little break, so I started Monster's over again and sat on the couch next to Carter.  As the opening scene unfolded he reached over and grabbed my shirt in a death grip.  A few seconds later he climbed onto my lap and pinched my hands.  I could feel his heart pumping a million times a minute.

If you are not familiar with the movie, the opening scene is of a monster creeping into a boy's room to scare him.  The music is ominous and the monster's eyes glow in the darkness.  Then the monster scares the boy, the boy screams, then the monster screams and falls down on some toys and hurts himself/ruins the scare and everyone laughs.

Carter yelled after the little boy screamed and I seriously started to second guess my choice of kid's movies. Is he too young?  He was fine for the rest of the movie and we kept talking about how monsters aren't real and they aren't scary, but really funny.  Did I scar Carter?  He doesn't seem any worse for wear now, but what do you think?  Is Monster's Inc to serious for an 18 month old?  What other Disney/Pixar movies should I avoid?  So far Monster's Inc is off my list.

I blinked and woke up six months later

Oh dear, I haven't blogged for 6+ months.  I'll blame life because it has been crazy, instead of blaming my lazy writing self.

Carter just turned 1 1/2 on Monday.  I'm not sure how it happened so quickly.  He is very much a toddler and while I love him to pieces, I'm not so much looking forward to the terrible twos.  Here are a few things about Carter now that I love:

1) He sleeps 11-12+ hours a night.  Bedtime is 8:00 pm ish and he sleeps until 7:30 am or later.  I love it.  I know I probably complained on this blog a hundred times about how horrible of a sleeper he was.  And he was.  Until he was about 13 months old and I couldn't take it anymore.  I finally broke him of waking up for a bottle in the middle of the night.  It took my lying on his floor and letting him hold my hand when he woke up, but it worked!

2)  Carter tells fascinating stories that I'm sure would be even more interesting if I could understand what he was saying.  The kid babbles constantly.  Occasionally I will recognize a word, or I will think that I did.  I'll come home from work and Brett will say something like, "I swear Carter said thank you, but then I couldn't get him to say it again."  It happens all the time.  I swear yesterday he said "All Done" and then grabbed his shoes and walked to the door.

3) Speaking of doors, Carter loves to go outside.  Not much gets him happier faster than asking him if he wants to go outside.  His eyes light up and he runs toward the door.  He will occasionally grab his shoes and bring them over to me, obviously indicating he wants to go outside.  We have started taking nightly walks together while Brett cleans up after dinner.  I love walking around and C holding my hand.

4)  One of the strangest things Carter does is how he cannot let me lie on the floor in peace.  Anytime I lay down he will run over and throw himself on top of me.  Sometimes he will grab a blanket and hold it over his head and free fall on my stomach.  I don't know why he does it, but I find it hilarious.  Not much is more terrifying than lying down and seeing Carter's huge toddler head coming straight towards me.  This usually results in a very slobbery kiss/lick.

Carter is great and I love him to pieces.  He is also extremely frustrating at times, but I'll keep this post happy.  Until next time...

I have a toddler??????

Yesterday was Carter's first birthday; I can't believe it! It seems like yesterday that I held him in my arms for the first time. But then it also seems like years since I got a good night's sleep. Those with kids can probably agree that it feels like Carter has been a part of our family forever. He is hilarious, frustrating, cute and frustrating.

At a whole one year-old Carter can:

• Army crawl like a pro
• Mumble "mamamama" as he crawls towards me
• Pick up lots of food to feed himself
• Walk several steps unassisted when he feels the need
• Play with his toys and put them back in the toy boxes (not the right ones, but it is progress)
• Clap his hands
• Shake his head side to side
• Give high-fives
• Lots of other things that make being with him so much fun

At a whole one year-old Carter CAN'T

• Resist electronics
• Sleep through the night
• Sleep through the night
• Sleep through the night
• Did I mention sleep through the night?

We love Carter so much and I can't imagine life without him. Now if only he would sleep through the night...

Uncle Chris

My brother Chris came to visit a few weeks ago. We had a lot of fun walking all over DC and spending time together. This was Chris' first trip to DC so we covered a lot of ground in a week. I won't bore you with all the details.

Of course we took Carter with us almost everywhere. In general, DC is a very family, little-kid loving place. By the end of the week Carter was getting sick of his stroller, so we would take him out and walk around with him. Usually he was well-behaved but sometimes he would get rather excited to be walking and would yell, shout, scream about his excitement. Most places his noises just blended in with the everyone else. However, at the National Gallery of Art I got some dirty looks from some. It didn't help that the rooms echoed and Carter loved hearing himself. I'm just trying to give my kid some culture people!

It was great to have Chris here. He was a big help with Carter and it was so cute to see them together. Chris met Carter when he was one month old, but all he could do was hold him. Then in July they met again. Carter was more fun then and able to sit up, but this trip Carter had tricks and wanted to walk everywhere; it was great to see the boys together.

Sorry you didn't get much sleep Chris...

Bad Janessa and Good Oma

I know I am behind on the blogging, like a dozen posts or so, but I am going to try my hardest to get caught up this week and then my goal is to blog at least once a week. I'm pretty sure I've set this goal numerous times, but I'm for reals this time.

The last post was about our first set of visitors here in Virginia, and this post shall be about the second set of visitors. Oma Patty came to visit for several days. (Oma means grandma in German.) We didn't do too many exciting things while she was here because she had done the whole touristy DC thing with me several years ago and not much has changed. Museums are still museums and the monuments haven't moved. At least they haven't moved much...there was that earthquake...

Anyway, we had a pretty chill week and had fun. It was great to have a second set of hands around to play with Carter so I could get some things done or relax. We did go to the National Zoo in DC one Saturday. It was all decorated for Halloween, so that provided some entertainment for us. Carter seemed to mostly enjoy the zoo. I think his favorite part was the Bird House, where many different types of birds lived. He also liked the small mammals. He must have been overly excited because he crashed towards the middle/end of our time at the zoo. My favorite part of the zoo was seeing an adult gorilla steal a bag of hay and popcorn from a little kid gorilla...hilarious.

While Oma was here Carter got better at clapping and shaking his head from side to side. The last evening she was staying with us I was sitting in the rocking chair with Carter on my lap and Oma was sitting by the side of the chair. Carter turned, grabbed Oma by the shoulders and gave her a big, slobbery, open mouth kiss. As you can imagine her heart just melted. The boy knows how to smooze already.

We had a lot of fun with Oma and can't wait to see her again in December!

Carter takes DC

This last weekend Carter's Grandma Linda and Uncle Ryan were in town to visit us and the great city of Washington, DC. Carter was very good as we carted him all over the city and he even took two naps a day in his stroller, even if the naps were only 30 minutes.

Since Carter has started taking a bottle (sniff, tears, sniff) he has refused to hold it himself; at 10 months he is definitely old enough. Because it is really hard to push a stroller and hold a bottle in his mouth at the same time, stuff like this happens:

We later discovered that the bag worked even better when we put the end of the bottle in the back pocket. Lazy baby...

The rest of us, however, were definitely not lazy. Below are a few pictures of our travels and adventures.

Me, Carter and Linda outside the Library of Congress.

Carter post-Capitol Building tour. He seems to enjoy the House Gallery sticker pass on his forehead...

Brett, Ryan, Linda and stroller waiting outside the National Archives building. Thank goodness the wait was only a few minutes. Last time I went the line was wrapping around the building. Bonus for having Carter--somehow after we went up the elevator we got admitted to the Constitution/Declaration of Independence room via a side door and bypassed the line. Holla!

Carter enjoying some time outside of the stroller while at the amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery. Carter wanted out of the stroller so badly, only to try and climb back in and play with the toys. Silly boy.

Proof Carter can stand all by himself when leaning up against another object. This picture is taken at the best little kid park ever, in the prettiest park ever, next to the prettiest townhouse community ever. Someday...

Close up of Carter at the park watching other kids run around. Do I detect a little envy in those baby blue eyes?

Carter really does love to swing even though he doesn't look like it here.

We had such a fun time with Ryan and Linda; Carter was sad to see them go. He cried a little as we left the airport. Next week Oma Patty comes to visit!