Hometown Days

Kevin and I took Carson downtown on Friday night for Swartz Creek's Hometown Days. Its basically the annual town fair. I had hoped to go with Jaime earlier in the day on Friday, but found out there wasn't much going on during the day while kids were in school. Things didn't really get going until 4pm. Kevin was able to leave work a little early so he was home by 5:00. We had decided we'd take Carson out to eat to Burger King for a treat. He thought he was hot stuff drinking out of a juice box from his kids' chicken tenders meal. After eating, we headed downtown for a walk through the fair. We got to see lots of animals and Carson liked feeding the goats carrots slices. After visiting the animals, Carson had fun watching all the rides. He really loved watching the ferris wheel. He was too small for even the smaller kiddie rides this year, though. Maybe next year... After Hometown Days, we made a quick stop by Great Grandma Moore's for a visit. She was very surprised to see us and said it just made her day! Pics will be up soon in the albums.

Memorial Weekend

We had a very fun, very busy, very productive Memorial Day weekend. We started our weekend off with an afternoon in East Lansing (see post below) on Friday. Saturday we spent the day at home getting things done. Kevin's friend, Jeff, came over mid-morning followed by my dad early afternoon to help Kevin chop up the Bonneville that was still sitting in our garage. Good news! Its not in there anymore!! :) I got some cleaning and some planting done on Saturday, too. Sunday, we headed out to my Aunt Sharon's house on the lake for a family party. Then on Monday, we did yard and garden work in the morning, then headed over to Julie and Jason's house for a BBQ lunch and to visit Kevin's grandparents and aunt and uncle who were visiting from the Grand Rapids area. We returned home for more yard, garden, and garage work.

Carson got to have his first dip in the lake and his first boat ride of the season on Sunday. He LOVES the water! We have a fish on our hands - he did not want to get out! He loved being on the boat, too. Although, the entire time he was trying to figure out how to open the doors so he could jump in the water. We'll need to get on those swimming lessons ASAP again, I think. :) We'll definitely be spending most Fridays this summer at the lake - it's going to be so much fun! Here are just a few pictures from Sunday, more are up in our Shutterfly albums.

MSU Children's Gardens

Yesterday, Carson and I took a trip to East Lansing to meet up with Aunt Mary, Rebecca, and Grandma and Grandpa Holleboom. We spent a couple hours walking and playing in the gardens. I think everyone had fun! Carson, of course, found lots of things to climb up and down. Rebecca was fascinated with the concrete sheep they have there and walked around saying "baa-baa" a good part of the trip. It was great to get out and spend some time together and see how the kids play. They're still so much in their own individual worlds that they don't really play together too much, but they did follow each other around a bit and they both did a good deal of watching/studying the other, I think. :) There are pics up in the Shutterfly albums, so be sure to check them out!

15 month update

Carson visited Dr. Akrawi on Monday afternoon for his 15-month well-baby visit. He continues to be a healthy little man. He was 22 pounds, 11 ounces, which keeps him in the 25th percentile for weight still. He measured 31 3/4 inches tall, which puts him just over the 75th percentile line for height. I think he may have been missing a little height because he was totally freaking out when they were measuring him (they still make him lie down on the exam table for it - and he doesn't like to lie down on things he's not familiar with), so his little neck and head were shrunk together like a turtle trying to pull its head into its shell, if that makes sense. So I'd bet we missed a good quarter to half inch on his height, but you never know. He continues to surpass all of his 15-month and even 18-month developmental milestones... he's hitting some of them past 2 years even. He had to get two more shots... another diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis and another pneumoccal conjugate. We go back when Carson is 18 months old, but he won't have any shots at that appointment! It'll be nice to have a break from them again. Though he wasn't bothered by these in the slightest way... well other than when they were actually being administered. :)

Carson is still quite the little sports lover. He is getting very good at kicking his soccer ball around. He still loves playing basketball, too. He is very intersted in learning how to use his golf clubs lately. Though he likes to run around with them on the floor, sort of like a hockey stick. He loves any sort of ball and he loves to throw them to you. He has very good aim for such a little guy. Maybe he'll be a pitcher like his cousin, Kyle, someday. :)

Carson absolutely loves his rocking horse. He will sit on it and rock for quite long periods of time. The other night he was on it a good 10 minutes straight (I only realized this after TWC's Local on the 8's came on twice). Surprisingly, he doesn't stand up on the horse, though he does kneel on it and rock sometimes. He also loves his new bouncy horse. He's a little small for it still - can't climb up on it without help from us - but he loves to bounce and rock on it all the same. He has started standing up on that one... with his feet in the stirrups and bouncing. He got quite the kick out of that when he tried it out and just started giggling.

We set up an outdoor play area for Carson last weekend with his playhouse, sandbox, and climber/slide. He loves to play out there. We are out there every night after work and multiple times during the day/night on the weekends now. I still want to get a specific picnic table to put back there, but for now we just put his snacks on his little table in his playhouse.

Carson is very physical for his age, but he is also a smart little man. He continues to learn new words every day. Yesterday, he learned Legos ("geh-gos), people ("pee-puh"), and "bus". He knows many of his body parts - head, hair, nose, mouth, tongue, ear, eye, neck, belly, arm, hands, fingers, toes, feet, knee, leg, butt. We're working on cheek, elbow, chin, forehead, back, shin, thigh. He knows to hold up the appropriate number of fingers for 1, 4, and 5. He has a hard time with 2, but is getting the finger coordination down a little better each day. 3 is still a work in progress. He also tries to sing the ABCs with you... "a-b-b" and "m-m-o-p" are his favorite parts.

Physician's Park with "Annie Maymee & Uh-muh Buff"

As mentioned in the post below, Carson and Sara went garage sale-ing with Auntie Jaime on Friday of this past week. After walking through the subdivision sales in Indian Hill in Grand Blanc, we walked up to have lunch downtown at Sophie's Kitchen, and then walked over to Physician's Park for some play time. We all had lots of fun and Carson had fun watching all the other kids at the park. Carson played pretty hard and crashed pretty hard as soon as we walked back to our car parked in the subdivision.

On Saturday morning, we met Auntie Jaime and Uncle Jeff for breakfast at Big Boy in Grand Blanc and then headed over to Physician's Park again for more play time. The playground was pretty dead due to the weather, but it was nice to have the place to ourselves. We all got to go up on the structure and play and have fun. Carson also tried out one of those twisty slides all by himself. He LOVED it!! He actually does better on the big, twisty slide than he does on the short, straight slides. Parks are just so much fun right now!

Before we left Saturday morning, Sara had told Carson that we were meeting Auntie Jaime and Uncle Jeff for breakfast. He was walking around saying "May-mee" over and over and over, followed by "Buff" over and over and over. That is how he says Jaime and Jeff. If he puts the auntie/uncle with their names, they turn out to be "Annie May-mee" and "Uh-muh Buff"... hence the title of this post. :)

I'll be posting the pics from the park in our Shutterfly albums sometime tonight or tomorrow, so be sure to check back to see if they're uploaded.

I wanna be a cowboy, baby!

Friday was a day of some serious garage sale-ing. Auntie Jaime joined Carson and Sara for some sales in Grand Blanc. We spent hours walking through Indian Hill subdivision and picked up some really fun new things! We found some push-trikes - one to keep at each Grandma's house - some new books, and lots of clothes for Carson for this fall/winter. We got to see Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, and Joel for a bit, too. After having lunch with Auntie Jaime and playing at Physician's Park for a while, we headed back to Swartz Creek where we went to some sales in Wyndemere. We picked up another basketball hoop and even more clothes for this fall/winter. Sara's mom was also garage sale-ing at the Wyndemere sub-sale and picked up some things for Carson... including one of those bouncy horses on the springs! Grandpa and Grandma brought it over to our house yesterday and Carson go to try it out - he loved it!! They even got him a fun cowboy hat to wear, which he also loves to wear.

15 months old!

Carson is now 15 months old! We go on Monday for his 15-month well-baby check-up... he gets at least one shot this time. I'm anxious to see how much he's grown since his 12-month appointment. He's just growing and developing so much. It still seems like he's learning something new everyday. He's still practicing balance all the time - walking and running on his tip toes, taking sideways steps across the room, walking backwards down small steps without holding on to anything and without falling, turning circles while looking at the ground which makes him dizzy... then he tries to walk and just giggles hysterically as he stumbles. He very rarely crawls up steps anymore, only when he's getting very tired. He almost always will take the railing (or your hand if there is no railing) and will walk up the stairs like we do. He's very good at walking down them now, too. His favorite thing to do is still to climb... anything and everything. He climbs up his little climber with no assistance from us anymore and then slides down the other side all by himself, too. He's just growing up so fast.

Carson is also learning how to take his shoes and socks off. It can be a struggle to get him to keep shoes on him nowadays... especially when we're at home and getting ready to go some place. Not only is it just a novelty right now, but he just loves being barefoot. Carson is a great hand-washer now, too. He loves to wash his hands in the sink with soap. Its so cute to watch him rub his hands together and then know when to rinse. He's showing a lot of interest in the toilet recently, too. Always wanting to flush it and see how it all works. There have even been a few occasions where he's told us before he's wet his diaper - by saying "puh" and pointing to his diaper. We'll check it right then and it's dry, but within seconds, it's wet. If he keeps this up, potty-training may not be too far off on the horizon... we'll see... I'm not really in a big hurry for that, I want him to be ready for it. But I think we're going to buy him a potty in the next couple of weeks... just to try it if he seems interested.

We're looking forward to a fun summer ahead! It will be so fun to take Carson swimming at the lake (Silver Lake). We're hoping that he loves the lake as much as he did last year and as much as he loves swimming pools right now. With all the pool time we've had lately on our hotel stays, he's even learning to kick his feet to swim. We're hoping to spend a lot of time at the lake this summer. Not only at Silver Lake in Fenton, but we're planning on taking a week-long trip up to Kevin's grandparents' trailer on Big Star Lake in August. So far, that is the only summer vacation we've committed to, but we may possibly be taking a trip up to Sault Ste. Marie for a long weekend and maybe even down to Lafayette, Indiana for a long weekend. We'll just have to see how plans work out.

We recently bought a family membership to the Impression 5 Science Center in East Lansing. We're able to get into the Flint Children's Museum and Sloan Museum for free with the membership, so I'm sure we'll be taking some trips there on rainy days this year. I signed Carson up for some Toddler Science Days at Impression 5 - a Splash Time class in July and a Dinosaurs class in August. They're specifically aimed at 1-2 year olds, so I think he'll enjoy them a lot. I think we're also going to be signing him up for some music classes at the Flint Institute of Music on Wednesday evenings. He really enjoys music, so I think he'll love the class. Not to mention, it will be great exposure to other kids his age. We'll also be attending lots of Silver Lake ski shows on Tuesday evenings this year, as well as some of the different waterski and wakeboard tournaments on the weekends that are held in the area... there is even a pro tournament being held at my uncle's private lake in memory of my cousin, Jason! We're very excited for that one, especially! We want to expose Carson to as much waterskiing and wakeboarding as we can... and we're hoping to get him up on his toddler ski this summer, too!

Sorry there are no pictures in this post... I just haven't had the time to upload them recently. I'll post some on Monday night next week when I update on Carson's check-up.

A Day at the Farm

We spent this past weekend in Grand Rapids for Sara's friend and old college roommate, Sara's, wedding. We headed to GR on Thursday and went over to visit Kevin's grandparents. Aunt Mary and cousin Rebecca met us over there. It was great to see everyone and we all had fun exploring the farm. It was fun to watch Carson and Rebecca run after one another to check everything out. They got to sit on some tractors and take a golf cart ride, too! Here are just a few pictures, but I've uploaded them all into our Shutterfly albums. After our visit to the farm, we went over to Aunt Mary's and Uncle Justin's house to visit some more, give Rebecca her birthday gift, and have take out for dinner. It was great to have some extra time to visit with them!

Wedding and Carson's 1st Overnight

This past Saturday, Kevin and I went to East Lansing to some college friends' wedding - Melanie and Dave. Melanie was a fellow Hubbard 9 South-er during Sara's freshman year at MSU. Kevin met Dave through his buddy James (JHew to those of us that know him as that) and the three of them lived together while Kevin was at MSU. Small world, huh? Anyway, they were married in the MSU Alumni Chapel on campus - such a beautiful place! Their reception was out at the Eagle Eye golf club. It was a beautiful wedding and a very fun reception! We got to catch up with some old friends. Sara got to see a few other girls from her Hubbard 9-South days, Sarah and Lisa... you can see in the picture Lisa, Sarah, Sara, and Melanie... a throw-back to our freshman year! Turns out Sarah and her husband live about four miles from where we live! Is that crazy, or what? They have a 2 1/2 year old daughter and we're hoping to set up some play dates this summer.

While we were at the wedding, Carson stayed with Sara's parents. It was our first attempt at an overnight stay and I think Carson loved it. He did perfectly! And I think Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed it just as much, if not more, than he did. :) It was nice to have a night out together and the next morning to work outside - both of us working at the same time, rather than one working and one playing. Its nice to know that overnight stays are an option... I'm sure we'll be attempting some others this summer.

A Day at the Park with Auntie Jaime

On Friday afternoon, Auntie Jaime came over and we took Carson to the toddler playground at Winshall Park in Swartz Creek. Carson had so much fun playing - climbing, sliding, and swinging. I think Auntie Jaime and Mama had fun, too! :) After we played for awhile, we put Carson in the BOB and took a walk through the Village. It was a great day! We're trying to see Auntie Jaime as much as possible right now before she and Uncle Jeff move to Phoenix, Arizona this summer. We're going to miss them terribly, but hopefully we'll get to visit them often!!

Chicago Trip - Swimming!

Kevin and Carson took advantage of the swimming pool at the hotel while I was in my meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. I went down and took some pictures on one of my breaks. Carson absolutely LOVED the pool! The water was even a tad chilly and he still loved it. He just laughed and splashed and tried to drink the pool. I think we're going to have to do some more swim lessons very soon. We're looking forward to staying in a hotel in Grand Rapids next weekend so that Carson can swim in the pool there, too. And hopefully this means he'll love the lake this year, too! I've uploaded the remainder of our Chicago pictures now, so be sure to check them out in our Shutterfly albums!

Chicago Trip - More Lakeshore Park

After we got back to the hotel from walking around after our trip to the Children's Museum and Navy Pier, we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen since we didn't have to walk outside to get there (it was pouring at that point). But after dinner, the rain stopped and we headed over to Lakeshore Park again. We were trying to take full advantage of the park - we honestly played there at least once a day, sometimes two or three times. This time we went over to the other side, to the bigger kids' area since the toddler area was pretty packed. Carson loved the twisty slides over there! I think Kevin like them, too, if you can't tell from the picture! :)

Chicago Trip - Chicago Children's Museum

After our visit to Millennium Park on Monday morning, we headed over to Navy Pier to have lunch and check out the Chicago Children's Museum. We ate lunch at Bubba Gump's, which was very tasty. Carson loved his meal there... probably the best meal he ate the entire trip... a personal/child size pepperoni pizza, french fries, an orange slice, and blue raspberry jello. The fries, orange, and jello came in a really cute little cardboard shrimp boat that Carson thought was pretty cool. He thought he was hot stuff picking his fries out of it. So cool that he had to put his shades on... LOL. :) He's also quite the little flirt. Throughout our trip, he would totally check out the young, blonde waitresses walking by... he'd literally follow them all the way around, turning circles in his seat and craning his neck. Then he'd smile slyly at them when they saw him. Such a little flirt!

After our lunch at Bubba Gump's, we headed into the Chicago Children's Museum (CCM). We got in for free since we bought a membership at Impressions 5 in Lansing... it'd have cost us $30 without our membership. The CCM is huge! Three levels - well mostly just two floors, since the first floor is mostly the gift shop and admissions area with just a few very small things to explore. Carson had a blast! We only had a chance to check out five of the different exhibits/rooms since Carson was getting quite tired towards the end. We spent a good three hours at the museum, when he just couldn't do anymore, he was so tired. So we put him in the BOB, he crashed, and we walked around Navy Pier and then saw some more of the city. Carson had so much fun at the CCM, though. We spent a lot of time playing in the toddler rooms. He walked up and slid down this little slide thing for a good 45 minutes straight, probably. He was just loving it so much. Pretty much anything he could climb on or over or up, he loved! It wasn't too busy, but he loved watching the other kids and tried to play with them sometimes, but mostly he was just having a blast with Mama and Daddy. :) If there had been more kids around, I bet he'd have played with them a little more, but oftentimes we were the only ones in the room since the six bus loads of kids had (thankfully) left just before we entered the museum. The CCM will definitely be a great place to go again and will probably be even more fun as Carson gets a little older and can understand some of their really cool exhibits! I'll be uploading all of our pictures from Monday to the Shutterfly albums soon, so keep an eye out if you want to see all of our pictures from the CCM!

Chicago Trip - Millennium Park

On Monday morning, we got up and took a stroll to Millennium Park. Carson napped on the way there in the BOB and continued to nap once we arrived (it was only about a 1.3 mile walk from our hotel, so it didn't take too long). We let him snooze a little longer, but then woke him up so he could play and enjoy the park before the rain arrived. The news had said it'd be storming by noon, but the storms were all around us, just not downtown, so we had beautiful weather all day until about dinner time. Anyway, this was the first time any of us had been to Millennium Park and we were excited to see the "bean" (a.k.a. Cloud Gate). Carson laughed at his reflection in the bean, but there were stairs off all sides of the plaza that the bean sits on, so he was more interested in those. :) We had wanted to go see the Crown Fountain, but didn't know where it was in the park (its a pretty large place) and there was some new construction of a new piece of architecture going on, so our view of the fountain from where we were walking around was blocked. So we never found it. Oh well, next time. :) We had fun checking out the bean all the same. The view from underneath was crazy and totally messed with your depth perception... you couldn't tell what was what. We watched several people walking under it that totally ran into the bean as they were walking, that's how messed up you get when you're looking into it. We spent most of our time at Millennium Park at the bean, but we also took a brief walk through the Lurie Gardens that are located there. It was pretty much just daffodils and tulips right now, but in the summer they are supposed to be just gorgeous. We had planned to walk over to Grant Park (across the street basically) to check out the Buckingham Fountain when we left Millennium Park, but we decided to just head to the lakeshore instead and get to Navy Pier in case the rain came soon. Turns out we had plenty of time before the rain came, but oh well. We'll have to go there next time.