20 months!!

Is he really 20 months old already? Hitting the 20-month mark feels like more of a milestone than the 18-month mark did. Only 4 more months and he'll be 2 years old! Time really does fly... and yes, I realize I say that almost every month, but it's just how it feels. :)

Carson is looking and acting more and more like a big boy every day. Since Kevin has been traveling so much for work lately, he is really noticing some big changes every week. While Kevin was in Germany a couple of weeks ago, Carson became a pro at stabbing his food with a fork and eating it. He had been doing pretty well with it before that, but still needed some help. Now, if the food is stab-able (I made that word up... for lack of better words), he gets it on the fork in just one try most times. Last week, when Kevin was in Virginia, Carson developed his eating-with-a-spoon skills... he's finally figuring out that he can't expect things to stay on the spoon when he flips it upside down into his mouth. :) He can actually get a good amount of food into his mouth on a spoon now!

It was evident that Carson is growing up when he got his flu shot a few weeks ago. This was his first shot in his upper arm (all his other shots have been given in his thighs) and he was such a champ! He watched everything (and yes, even at this age, his eyes got big when he saw the needle!) and didn't shed a single tear, or even let out the tiniest whimper! All he did was give the nurse a very dirty look. He was such a big boy - his Mama was so proud of him!

It looks like we have a sleep-walker on our hands. For the last few weeks, Carson will get up in the night - sometimes he'll open and close his bedroom door, other times I just hear him walking around his room. I've gone in there a couple of times and he is totally still sleeping while he's roaming. So now, I just listen until he settles down again (usually less than 3 minutes) and go back to sleep. In the mornings, we find him sleeping in random places around his room - curled up on the floor some place.

Carson is talking so much. It is so fun to actually have mini conversations with him. He continues to repeat everything you say. And picks out the most random words while you are talking. He's been walking around saying "ex-ce-unt" (excellent) lately... and he actually knows when to use it, too.

He has a fantastic memory. Carson remembers things that the rest of us haven't mentioned in a while. He still talks about Shelbi at least a couple of times a week. And when he's at Nana's and Papa's, he is always looking for her and going to the door calling her to come in. He just doesn't understand that she is gone and isn't coming back. Last week, Kevin was getting ready to leave for Virginia on Tuesday night (he left early Wednesday morning). When it was time for bed, we told Carson that Daddy would be gone to work for awhile again and that he'd be gone by the time we got up in the morning, so Carson had to say bye-bye to Daddy before going to bed. That next morning, when I went in to wake him up to leave, after saying "mo-nin un-shine" (good morning sunshine), the first words out of his mouth were "Daddy gone. Daddy home. Daddy gone." He really does get it.

We've been trying to do something creative several times a week in the evenings after dinner and before Carson takes his bath and we start our bedtime routine. Carson likes to "rough-house" play in the evenings when Kevin is home... wrestling on the floor, climbing, jumping, etc. Well, when its just me home on my own during the week, I can only do so much of that. So I've been trying to focus his energy into creative things. Whether we just do some coloring, play with the Play-Doh, or do a fun, special project - Carson is loving it! We went on a nature hike around our property one night last week and picked up lots of pretty colored leaves. Carson and I pressed them in wax paper in the phone book for use with some projects this week (hopefully tonight!). I'm sure you'll be seeing some posts featuring some of our fun projects we have planned!

We've also been trying to see some friends more often lately. Since Carson isn't in daycare, he doesn't get a lot of interaction with kids his own age. Sara has a friend at work, Lina, who has a daughter, Vayla, that is a month older than Carson. Lina, her husband, Sean, and Vayla came over a couple Saturdays ago to hang out. Kevin taught Sean how to change the brakes and rotors on their G6, while Lina and I had fun playing with the kiddos. Carson and Vayla play very well together and had so much fun! We played inside; took a walk around the property; played in the playhouse and on the slide and climber; and played in the driveway on the ride-on toys. At the end of the day, both kiddos were exhausted and crashed immediately after Lina, Sean, and Vayla left. We look forward to hanging out more often in the months to come!

Carson is still loving his swim classes on Wednesday nights. He gets so excited when he knows he's on his way to go swimming. The class is 40 minutes long and he's never ready to get out when it's time to go get dried off and change. He'd stay in the pool all night, if we let him. His skills are developing - he's reaching and pulling with his arms much better now and his kicks continually strengthen. He's floating on his back a little longer each time and he is learning to blow out of his nose when he jumps in off the side of the pool and goes under a little (holding on to my hands). We've definitely got a fish on our hands!! :)