Poor Little Man

Our poor little man got his first fat lip tonight. I'm sure this was just the first of many. He was running around, having so much fun, carrying his blankie around. As he was running, he tripped over his blankie and boom he went. His two front teeth went into his upper lip. Poor guy! It really scared him (and me!) with all of the blood, but he was a trooper and calmed down much quicker than I expected him to. He was smiling and on the go again within probably three minutes. But he did manage to give me this poor, pathetic look when I took a picture. :) His little lip is so swollen and red. Hopefully it'll look a little better tomorrow.

Cousins!

Last Saturday, we took a trip out to Grand Rapids to visit family. I'm finally just now uploading the pictures from the trip, so I figured I'd post about it, too. We first stopped by the farm to visit Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, and Joel were there, too! Carson had lots of fun playing with Anna and Joel - and I think Anna had fun watching out for Carson. She is such a little mommy - so cute! It was nice to see everyone. Even though we live so close to them, we don't see Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, and Joel very often, so its always fun for Carson to play with them. Great Grandma and Great Grandpa got a big kick out of how much Carson has grown since they saw him at Christmas. The still can't get over how he just runs around constantly.

After we left the farm, we headed over to see Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca. We ate a yummy dinner with them and had lots of fun watching Rebecca and Carson play together. Carson didn't know what to think when Rebecca wanted to check out his pacifier, but he handled it ok. He had lots of fun playing with all her toys and crawling around the floor with her. We can only imagine how crazy it'll be when they're both running around after one another like crazy little munchkins! :) We always enjoy our visits with Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca. We definitely don't get to see them often enough and when we do the time goes by way too quickly. We'll be seeing lots of them in February, though - three weeks in a row!

Carson *hearts* Rachael Ray

Lately, Carson has been loving Rachael Ray's talk show. He doesn't pay too much attention to her on her cooking shows, but lately he just stares at the tv during her talk show. I think he may have his first crush! :-P Not really, but there is something about her show that intrigues him. He'll stop what he's doing and just stare at the television, sometimes walking up to the tv to point at and try to touch Rachael. He also likes her music. Whenever the show cuts to a commercial and their music comes on, he starts dancing. Its quite funny to see. :)

Here he is entranced with the show...

Is he really 11 months old?

We are truly in disbelief that our little man is going to be a year old in less than a month now. How did the time go by so quickly? Where did our little baby go? It just feels like Carson has grown up so fast, especially these last few months with all of the changes in attitude since he's been walking. He thinks he's such a big shot. He's mastered the skill of walking up and down half-size steps. He still can't do full-size steps, but then again he doesn't get much practice on the full-size steps. If he knows there is a half-step around, it will keep him occupied for the longest time. He just steps down and up, back and forth, over and over again. He can even walk up the step with no hands, though he most often will hold onto the wall with one hand just in case.

Carson is on the go non-stop. He rarely will sit down and just play anymore. He may stop for 30 seconds here or 2 minutes there, but rarely will he sit down for more than a couple of minutes. His favorite toy right now is probably his plush soccer ball. Its light-weight, soft, and easy to hold onto, so he can carry it with him as he's running around. He also likes to play fetch. He'll bring the ball to you and wants you to throw/roll it away so he can run to get it and bring it back. He likes to toss it and roll it to you, too, but he has more fun running after it. He also really likes his mini basketball hoop. He picks up the balls now and almost immediately takes them to the hoop and puts them through and then gets all proud and claps that he made the basket. So cute! He still likes carrying his baseball bat around like a little Bam-Bam. And his golf clubs, too. Looks like we're going to have a little man that loves sports on our hands. He enjoys his Little People toys. He likes to put the people in and out and then crash them together. And he loves blocks. He doesn't really build things himself, but he loves to send the things we build crashing down. He thinks that is a super fun game! He still loves his musical toys, as well. He's learning to enjoy his ride-on toys, too. He'll sit on them now and loves it when you push him around on them, and he'll use his feet to scoot them around a little now, too. We'll have to keep working on those ride-on toys if we hope to get him on a dirt bike or snowmobile one day! :-P

Carson still just has the six teeth he's had for awhile now (4 on top, 2 on the bottom). His eye teeth still haven't emerged, even though we've been able to see them now for the last two months. The poor guy just cuts his teeth so slowly. I think most of his teeth have taken 6-8 weeks to actually cut through once we've been able to see them. He's eating just about everything we eat now. Its nice to not have to make separate meals for us and him every night. Although all of the different kinds of foods have been giving him terrible gas these last couple of weeks. He has a hard time sleeping for too long because the gas builds up and I'm sure is painful, so we've had some rough, sleepless nights for the last couple of weeks.

We are now planning Carson's 1st birthday party next month. Hard to believe. It'll be a fun time, although I think we'll be a little sad that our little man has grown up so fast.

He still likes to play with Jet... here he is so excited that he stole Jet's bone toy from him and is running away with it with Jet chasing him. :)

Winter Wonderland

Carson had his first experience in the snow this afternoon. He didn't really know what to think. He didn't think he could walk too well, with all the gear on and the depth of the snow, but he stood there on a patch that was packed down pretty well looking around for awhile. We tried out his sled finally, too. He didn't hate it, but he didn't love it either. :) It didn't help that he was getting tired and ready for his afternoon nap. But he tolerated it and even started to fall asleep towards the end of the ride. We'll have to try it again on another day. Today was just so beautiful, with the fresh snow sticking to all the trees. It was cold, but the wind wasn't blowing, so it actually felt pretty nice out. Jet had a lot of fun in the snow, as he always does. You can definitely tell he has some husky in him with the way he loves snow. He is like a child and gets all excited when he sees it snowing outside from the window. He just can't wait to go outside and play.

Family Room (a.k.a. the Breezeway)

During our vacation during the holidays, we were busy converting our breezeway from a storage area to a family room/play room. Its not perfect, but it'll do us well for now and it'll be nice to not have to worry about things being spilled or ruined. We did the conversion for pennies compared to what we could have spent. The furniture is from my cousin Becky, the carpet is from my Aunt Sharon's house - she got new carpet last month and we just pieced some of the old stuff together. You can see the seams on some of it and the carpet cleaners couldn't get the stain from the coffee table out, but it'll work for us for now. Kevin and his dad replaced the door to the garage with a steel exterior door - there had only been a hollow wood door before that was very drafty. They still have to do some trim work to finish it up, but it made a huge difference. We also purchased an electric stove heater to go with the rustic feel of the knotty pine. Its the kind that doesn't get hot to the touch (unless you reach underneath), so it is perfect for Carson. We also purchased the toy bins for Carson's toys and we'll need to work on decorating, but that will come in time. For now, we're loving having this extra space to play. Its nice that it has carpet, too. Makes for much softer landings on Carson's part. :)

Crazy Boy

Our crazy-haired little boy has been a very sick little man for the last 9 days. He caught what has now become the Holleboom family "itis," as it is being called by Kevin and Danny, after being exposed at Christmas. The "itis" has reared its sickness in all four households of the Holleboom family, as well as some of the extended family, too. While older children and adults can handle the "itis," it has wreaked a lot of havoc on Carson's little body and airways - as well as with his cousin, Rebecca, who is two months younger than Carson. It ended up turning into croup for Carson and we've had some very scary times when his airways would constrict. Auntie Jaime has been our hero - helping us out during some very scary times and helping us out with her connections in the Genesys Emergency Room (she works there as a P.A.). Thankfully the steroids he received in the ER really helped him through the worst of it all. He is almost back to normal now and we're so glad to have our happy little guy back with all his energy again! I think he's trying to make up for all the lost time while he was sick, too. He now only has one speed - super-speed - when he's walking/running around. His little legs just get going so fast. He has also mastered the squat to pick something up in the middle of the floor and return to standing without holding on to anything move. Little man is just growing up way too fast!

I wanted to share some pictures of Carson drinking out of a "big boy" glass, too. He doesn't like to use sippy cups or straw cups anymore - rather he wants to drink out of the same glasses we use. The only problem is that he's been watching Jet drink from his bowl a little too much and thinks he is supposed to lap up the water with his tongue. He also smashes his little face into the glass so hard (hence the red marks in the last picture).