Carter's Weekend with his Grandparents

While Mom and Dad were both partying it up and relaxing in Florida, Carter's grandparents came down from Wisconsin to watch the little guy.  After spending a night with Mom and Dad on Wednesday, they were on their own from Thursday till late Sunday.

From the sounds on the phone, it was apparent that both Carter and his Grandparents had a great time.  The highlight was a long trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  Carter always has a blast at the Children's Garden and showed Grandma and Grandpa all the fun, including the wood instruments.

He even tried to help show the older ladies (rumor has it that Carter has a little thing for the older ladies - more on that in an upcoming post).

The most fun Carter had was the pumpkin bowling and basketball.

However, Carter could not focus on the bowling and just wanted to play basketball no matter the coxing from Grandma.

Mom and Dad came home on Sunday, and Carter's Grandparents were able to stay till Tuesday which meant another day of fun.  This day Carter, Dad, and the Grandparents headed to Centennial Park and then to the Children's Museum.  Carter's short attention span meant that Grandma and Grandpa got the full tour of the museum two or three times over.  Carter did show a new found interest in the PVC building area.

He then headed over to the moon sand area with Grandma and Dad (bonus points if you can find Carter in this picture).

Carter even showed off his budding engineering skills with Grandpa

The new Fairy Tale Exhibit seemed a bit beyond Carter's years, but he enjoyed watching the birds go by the window in Cinderella's coach.

Then we were off to go fishing!

After a long day downtown, it was time to go home for lunch and a well earned nap.  Once awake, the afternoon proved to be beautiful, so it was off to the park for more fun in the sun (got to do it while we can, winter is soon on its way).

Carter has shown a new found excitement for playgrounds and seems to really enjoy climbing all over them after one of his favorite items, slides!

However, he still remembered to get some fun time in hos old buddy, the swings.

After a few more rounds through the playground...

We headed home and bid Grandma and Grandpa good bye after a fun and extended weekend.  We hope to see them soon as we are not sure who had more fun, Carter or his Grandparents.

A Palm Beach Wedding Weekend

Colin and I left Carter with his parents for a long weekend and headed to Palm Beach to celebrate Ali and Kyle's nuptials. Ali was one of my closest friends at Emory so we were really excited to get to catch up with a bunch of our college friends.

The wedding was at the Four Seasons so we spend lots of time by the water enjoying the rough life. The weather was beautiful and we had great company. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

With Hillary and Jodi pre-ceremony.
Ali and dad walking down the aisle
First kiss as the Kimpler's
Emory ladies Post-Wedding
Jordan, Colin and Baby Holden #2
Leif and Matt watching football at the rehearsal (unfortunately they were amazed by the end of the Badger game)
Sunday morning... recovering by the pool.
It was a beautiful wedding and so much fun to see everyone! Hopefully we will have the opportunity to do it again soon!

We Were Spooked

Carter was a little confused when mom and dad called him outside but they had something fun to show him.
One of his neighborhood friends "spooked" his house. Carter immediately noticed the ghost on the door and...
went to check it out.
Besides the fun new door decoration, Carter got a bag of treats. And tomorrow night he gets to return the favor to 2 more pals. Happy "Spooking" Everyone!

Saturday at the Zoo

Saturday we headed to the zoo early to take advantage of a member event. Carter immediately ran to the bubbles (one of his FAVORITE words!). After we pried him away, we headed to the train. This was a first for the little guy but he jumped right on and was ready to go.
After the train, we decided to let the little guy wear himself out by running around. In Carter's case this means moving his legs as quick as possible and flailing his arms for propulsion.
Carter stopped long enough to pose for a few pictures...
And take a break to watch the Otters with his pal Charlie.
After some more goofing around...
we decided it was time to head home. What a fun morning!

Baby Cabbage Update

We had a quick Dr visit today (they are every 2 weeks now) and baby is doing great. He is now a little over the size of a cabbage. Baby's heartbeat was in the 140s. I'm showing some initial signs of my body preparing for labor but nothing imminent. We go back in two weeks to the Perinatologist and the OB so we'll have another update then!

Carter is also preparing to be a big brother by giving his little bro lots of LOVE!

He is pretty darn cute. For the past few weeks, when I show him my belly he either gives it a kiss or tries to put a golf ball in my belly button. This week he has started adding in hugs.
He also likes to make sure that baby Cabbage knows who the big brother is. I don't think Carter is going to let the little guy run all over him!

Fall Decorating

While mom took an afternoon nap, dad and Carter took a trip to the local pumpkin patch to pick up some decorations for the front yard. For two boys I think they did pretty well!

Happy Birthday and Hippo Hop

Sunday morning we packed up the family and headed to Hippo Hop to celebrate Naomi's 3rd birthday. Cater and dad had fun playing in all the bouncy houses. Mom watched from the sides as pregnant ladies don't bounce. But from the looks of things the boys had fun!After Carter was bounced out, he played with the more solid toys. This car was his favorite. Mainly because it had a steering wheel.But Carter's favorite toys of the day were the balls. They were tons of them. This one was particularly fun since it had a handle he could carry it around with.Carter also showed off his new walking technique. In the past week he has started walking on his tippy toes every once in a while. We have no idea where this habit came from but we're guessing maybe a friend at daycare?Carter took a quick trip back to the bouncy houses and tried out the dragon slide for a while.
Then he played some hoops with dad while he waited for lunch.Carter and dad have some interesting basketball techniques. ..

Right before lunch, Carter and dad decided to take a trip down the big slide.

Then it was time for pizza, cake and ice cream. Mom and dad had a lot of fun seeing our High School friends and Carter had a blast playing. He might have had a little too much fun as this was the scene when we pulled into the driveway at home.

Another Saturday Means....

Another day on the Flats and another Tech 'W'. In what has become a ritual at this point, we packed up the family and headed to Tech so we could tailgate for a while and then Carter went home to hang with Grandmommy while mom and dad went to the game.

There was a jumpy room across from where we tailgate so Carter decided to give it a spin.

He needed some work on his balance but he had fun bouncing with mom.
Carter needed a little rest after all that moving so he took a load off with dad.
Then we decided to take a little stroll....
All that walking made Carter tired again. Luckily, mom had the perfect spot for him to perch on for a while ;)
Soon it was time to welcome the team. Carter wasn't too sure what was going on at first but by the end he was waving his hand back and forth as the players walked by.
After the player walk, we took a short break to listen to the band. Carter is memorized by all the music and is perfectly content to sit and listen for ages.
Unfortunately it was time for the little guy to take a nap so off he went with GM while mom and dad headed to the game. Tech won again which is always fun and Carter had a nice nap and afternoon play session. Successful Saturday all around!

Dining Out

We don't go out for dinner much these days at Carter is impossible to keep still for long. But when our High School friend, Chad, came in town we figured we'd give it a try. We decided to go to Nakato's so we could see another Lovett pal and we were hoping the Hibachi entertainment would keep Carter occupied. And it worked!

Carter started the evening by rearranging all the newpapers in the lobby while we waited to get seated (Luckily Sachi has a 3 year old so she takes all the kid stuff in stride!). When we sat down, he grabbed his chopsticks and had all sorts of fun. They made great drum sticks, were fun to poke mom and dad with, worked like a teether...
And could be dropped on the floor for mom and dad to pick up. After not to long, our cook came and Carter was really into the show. Our chef totally catered to Carter and he loved it. There was fire, and flying food and lots of silly faces.
The only part Carter didn't love was when the cook tried to give him a high-five. When our cook was done, Carter watched all the other tables around us. Hibachi was a hit!
Carter liked the food to and actually sat still long enough for us to have a normal dinner and a real conversation with Chad and Sachi. After dinner, Carter chilled with his chop stick while we finished our drinks.
We will definitely have to go back to Nakato's again for our next family dinner out!

17 Months Recap

Here are some tidbits on what our darling, little 17 month old is up to...

• Carter is a typical toddler... sweet and adorable most of the time but can turn on the water works when he doesn't get what he wants.
• Sleeping Schedule: Going to bed later around 8:00 or so but napping 2-3 hours in the afternoon (even at daycare).
• He LOVES music and dancing. Making music himself is a favorite daily activity.
• Talking more and more. He has added a few new words which he mainly gets from copying what mom and dad say. New words include football, plane, truck, bubbles.
• In addition he is pretty good at animal noises... woof, baa, moo, ooh-ooh (monkey)
• Favorite noises are "Whoa" and "ooohhh".
• He will give you a kiss when you ask for one.
• Baby Einstein DVDs are a big hit. Carter runs over and says "Ooohh" whenever he sees them come on.
• Doing more playing with friends at daycare rather than just next to them. Likes to run around outside chasing his friends while they say "Whoa" to each other. He also likes to push his classmate on the buggies.
• Teacher at daycare calls him her little "Punk". He likes to turn on the water works until he gets what he wants or realizes he isn't going to get it and then immediately stops.
• His new favorite food... peanut butter.
• Mom is back on the cool list.
• Likes to clean.. spends lots of time cleaning leaves off the deck, his play ground, stairs, etc.
• First non-Dr band-aid (got finger caught in drawer while trying to help clean up kitchen.
• Loves planes... is amazing at spotting them in the sky. When he does he calls out "plane" and goes "ooohhhh".
• Can point to various body parts when you ask him to.. head, ears, mouth, toes, etc. Can bring you a specific toy when you ask for it.
• Imitates what you say and do. So far this is very cute but we'll see how long that lasts.
• He is very into blowing kisses using both hands at the same time and playing peek-a-boo himself. That lost its luster for a while but has made a roaring comeback.

Overall Carter is turning into a little person and is so much fun to have around!

Fall Is Here

October arrived and so did Fall. It was a cool weekend in Atlanta which made the perfect day to huddle in the house and watch football. We were also able to open up the house some which Carter and Madie definitely enjoyed.
Game day was also exciting for Carter because we had some friends come over to play including adorable baby Charlie.
Charlie was great about playing with Carter but Carter still has some work to do in the sharing category. Charlie also wanted to look out the window with Carter but Carter didn't want to share his window so he would nudge Charlie out of the way. And when Charlie was sweetly playing with Carter's toys, Carter would throw his body on top of the toys so no one else could get to them. It was hilarious to watch and funny to think about the poor shock the little guy is in store for later this year!

The rest of the weekend was spent with Carter playing on his new drums...
And some general baby craziness. Carter is a rambunctious toddler these days and ended the weekend with another first. His first black eye.

It didn't seem to slow the little guy down at all! We hope everyone had a great first Fall weekend at well!