Boy's Weekend in Atlanta

While mom was away, the Holden men had a fabulous weekend of their own. They spent lots of time playing around and made sure to make sure mom had something to do when she got home on Sunday.They did venture out of the house some. They checked out the fish at the Aquarium.

And practiced their golf swing at the Children's museum.

From the looks of it the boys had a great weekend!

Girl's Weekend in NYC

It's been a busy week of travel at the Holden House. Dad has had work trips on back-to-back weeks and sandwiched in the middle, mom headed to NYC! It was mom's good friend from Emory, Ali's, bachlorette party.

We had a "low key" Friday night with dinner and drinks (well not for mom). BTW - low key for pregnant mom is very different from the NYC norm ;)

Saturday started off with a gorgeous, garden shower for the beautiful bride. Here is a pic of the Emory gang!
Mom made sure to squeeze in a nap that afternoon so she was ready for thee main event. Saturday night started with a Moulin Rouge themed party at Ali's apartment and continued to a club for the evening where we reminisced about all the fun we've had over the past 12 years together,

gushed over the beautiful bride,

and danced until we dropped!Mom hadn't be up that late in a LONG time (at least not due to something other than a crying baby ;). It was well worth it though! It was a great weekend and I can't wait for the main event in only a few months!

Halfway There

That's right, we are halfway through pregnancy #2. We had out 20 week anatomy scan today an everything is right on track. Baby is measuring exactly on schedule and weighs approximately 11 oz. Heartbeat is 150 and it's still a boy ;) All the measurements looked good, at least the ones they could get when baby wasn't squirming at over the place. The brothers already have something in common!

We go back in 4 weeks to see the OB and 5 weeks to the Prenatal Specialist.

And just so you don't miss your Carter fix for the day. Here is the little guy enjoying a little post-breakfast snack. The little guy has quite the appetite these days!

...and he's back

After a few days at home with Mom and Dad (and some help from Grandma), Carter has done well to kick the bug and is back to his old ways.  He still has some bumps that are healing, but he is no longer contagious and the bumps are going away.  He also is back to his normal 100MPH getting in to everything self.  Luckily he is also back to his adventurous food habits.  Today Carter and Dad ran some errands and decided to bring back some potato gnocchi.  It was a hit when it was in the package...

Luckily, it was also a hit with some yummy pasta sauce poured over it!  It is great to have our old Carter back, we should have a good weekend coming up.

We were due...

We had somehow managed to survive over 14 moths with no official illness for Carter despite being in Daycare and putting everything in his mouth! Our luck ran out today when Carter came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. From the sound of things, it seems like a pretty minor case so far so we're hoping it doesn't get worse. Carter doesn't seem to even know he is sick but he is contageous to other kids for 5-7 days so mom had to miss her first day of work due to baby sickness.

Hopefully the little guy is back to normal soon!

On a side note, he weighed 23.5lbs at the Dr office.

Month 14 - Mid Month Update

Here's a quick mid-month update on the little guy. Carter continues to grow his communication skills. He has added "please" to his sign language skills. He now says please every time he wants something. It is pretty cute. He is also making new sounds every week. He is working on dog, puppy and brie-brie (he calls Madie "Brie-Brie" too). Coincidentally he has never seemed more fascinated with the pets. He likes to follow the dogs around and when he gets close he squats down and says dog/puppy/Brie-Brie. He also likes bring them and Morgan toys. Morgan is actually very tolerant of Carter.

Carter still likes to play with whatever he can get his hands on. He has been particularly into balls this week (the bigger the better). He loves to grab a book and jump in mom/dad's lap to read it. But most of all he likes pulling everything out of drawers/cabinets/boxes...luckily he also seems to enjoy putting things away too! He is very into shape sorting, puzzles and other similar toys.

Carter is eating great and growing along with it. He is now tall enough to reach the kitchen counter and he has to duck to walk under the "island". We are on constant baby proofing duty!

Carter continues to grow each week and it's amazing how quickly time flies!

Solo Play

Our typical routine during the week when we get home involves taking care of the dogs, getting the mail and then either Carter playing in the kitchen while mom/dad get dinner ready or one parent getting dinner ready while the other chases Carter around.

That was almost the case tonight. We took care of the dogs, then got the mail but that's where things changed. We came in from getting the mail and Carter immediately walked over to his play room, walked in, shut the gate behind him and said "Bye-Bye". Then we heard some talking and banging. Mom/Dad weren't quite sure what was going on so we peaked our head around the corner and here is what we saw...

Carter had gotten the toys he wanted to play with down and he was happily playing by himself. Whenever we would check on him, he gave us this "What?" look. It was hilarious. So we went on to make dinner and when we told Carter it was ready he came out and walked over to the table. It was too funny. Our baby has grown up overnight!

Happy Birthday Pops

Happy Birthday Pops!PS - Don't you LOVE the hat?

Saturday at the Museum

Carter had enjoyed all his outings while on vacation so we obliged his wants and headed to the Children's museum on Saturday afternoon. The place was packed which just meant more kids for Carter to follow around/copy/play with. He started the day in the sports room where he got a glance of his future as a football player.

We don't think that is in his future anytime soon! So he gave gymnastics a try. He was pretty good at the balance beam but then he saw his new favorite activity... golf. He and dad gave it a whirl for a while.But then he gave up and decided to eat the balls for a while. After that is was on to the blocks where dad made towers and Carter knocked them down.

Carter doesn't stay still for long so it was off to do some Gardening...

And then some fishing!

All that playing made Carter a little tired so he took a break to read a book with dad. And some light playing with mom.

But then it was off again to his next adventure. Carter found his favorite item at the museum, the giant red piano!It was almost time to go but Carter wanted to get one more activity in... the sand table. It isn't real sand, it's more like a sand/clay combo so it doesn't get everywhere. Carter and dad built several different sculptures.

And they all looked so good Carter decided to eat one! That means its time to go get some real food in the little guy's belly so "Bye-Bye" museum!

Faces of Carter

After a long morning nap, Carter woke up very hungry so we decided to grab a bite on our way to the Children's Musuem. Carter enjoyed his Penne and Cheese so much that a smile fit erupted! Mom took several pics to document the fun.
Post meal - Smile One
Post Meal - Smile Two

Post Meal - Smile Three

And the ensuing Giggle Fit!

Hopefully everyone loves meal time as much as Carter!!!

Belated Baptism Pictures

Here are two quick pictures from after Carter's baptism last month.

17 Weeks Pregnant

Just a quick pregnancy update. All is going well. I have been through two rounds of Progesterone shots now and so far I haven't had any major side effects. I'm thankful the 2nd trimester is here which has brought some more energy with it. Other than that there isn't much new to report. Our little turnip (that's how big he is this week) is doing well. His vitals have been great at all his recent appointments (Heartbeat is high 150's/low 160's). We go back at the end of the month for the big 20 week appointment so I'm sure we'll have more news then.

Until then, here is a nice picture of my ever growing belly!

All Good Things Must Come To an End...

but not before a proper sendoff! We squeezed in a little more fun before it was Bye-Bye vacation and back to reality. We decided to give mini golf a try. At first Carter was more interested with eating the balls than letting mom or dad play.But after a little while he realized that he was missing a key piece to the game. So he grabbed a club.And had dad show him how to use it.

Carter gave it a go for a while but he seemed more interested in picking up the leaves off the course than playing so mom and dad finished up and we all headed him for lunch (P.S. Mom won big ;) )

After lunch and a nap, Carter wanted to go to the playground one last time. So we obliged. Carter had fun on the swings,

going down the slides,

driving the ship,

and generally playing around!

He also had to take one last trip to his favorite place at the playground, the play house!

We headed home so mom and dad could make dinner and start packing. Carter decided he needed to get some thorough play in. He even found a fun new toy to play with... the warming drawer. This might have been Carter's favorite toy so far. He could open, close AND climb in it! How perfect!

We had a great vacation and can't wait for the next one!

Happy Birthday America!

What better way to celebrate July 4th than with a trip to the beach where they have lots of fun activities to help celebrate? We decided to take full advantage of the day so we started with a trip to the beach where dad broke out the kite. Carter was mesmerized.

But like all obsessions with Carter, it didn't last long before he was on to the next big thing. In this case, a squishy purple ball.

But that soon lost interest as Carter decided to walk around for a while and enjoy the sites, sounds...

and sand!

But he eventually got a little lonely so he was excited to run to dad...

and snuggle with him for a while.

The boys decided to take a walk to check out the ocean.

All that movement made Carter thirsty, so he headed back to our spot

where he decided to take a load of and grab some water.

Soon it was time get up again and...

get his play on. Which meant "Cover Himself in Sand"!

Soon it was time to head home and get cleaned up so we could make it to the July 4th parade. We took the bikes over to watch. There were probably a hundred or so participants. Most were on golf carts...

But there were a few bikes, skateboards, boats...

And even a jelly fish!

It was all let by the Grand Marshall, the Isle of Palms Fire Department!

After the parade, we decided to head home for lunch. Apparently all the excitement wore Carter out because he didn't make it halfway home before it was nap time for the little guy.

After a nice long nap and some refueling, it was back to play. Carter has an obsession with crawling in things lately so he decided to give the cooler a try. Mom decided it made a fun ride.

Later that evening after dinner, it was time to head downtown for the 4th of July celebration. We made a quick stop on the way to take a picture of Carter and the manatee mailbox (a Sullivan's vacation tradition). He was all decked out for the 4th much to Carter's enjoyment!

There were more Fire Trucks downtown for Carter to scope out. Just when we marvel at how big he is getting, you put him next to this baby and be definitely is still baby-size.

While we waited for the fireworks, we enjoyed dancing to the live music and playing on the play ground. Carter made sure to get a turn in on the swings.

There were tons of kids around and all Carter wanted to do was play with them. Unfortunately we didn't think he was quite ready to join the basketball game yet so he had to watch from dad's shoulders on the sideline.

Then it was back to the playground for more fun!

Soon it was time for fireworks. Carter watched for a while with dad...

And then he moved onto mom.

He eventually gave up and just wanted to play again. Typical baby ;) The noise and lights didn't bother him at all. Surprisingly he didn't even flinch for the first one. We'll see how that tradition continues next year! It was a great day and we had a ton of fun celebrating America's birthday!