21 months!!

Carson is now 21 months old! He is turning into such a big-little boy, too. He's definitely entering the "terrible 2" stage of independence. He is such a great helper, which I have really been appreciating a lot since Kevin has been traveling so much. Carson continues to enjoy helping with the laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, picking up his toys, dusting, and other minor cleaning. Carson loves to help with the cooking, too I find ways that he can help with just about everything, otherwise he's not too happy and I don't get much cooking done. :) It is so fun to cook with him, though. He especially loves to help make sweet treats... and will sneak tastes as often as possible. He most definitely has a sweet tooth!

Carson is doing very well with his letters. We're still doing a new letter every few days or so. Here he is learning that E is for elephant, Elmo, and eggs. He actually is really soaking it in. He will pick out letters on your shirt, in a book, etc. Carson is learning new shapes, too. He's had the basic shapes down pat for months now and loves to pick them out. He's even picking shapes out of abstract objects and everyday things he sees. We're currently working on octagons and trapezoids. Carson is also doing great with his colors. Though I sometimes wonder if he picked up the color blindness gene in my family. He always knows yellow, brown, orange, green, and purple. He sometimes confuses red for orange and blue for green - it just depends on the shade of red or blue. We're working on black, grey, and white right now.

Lately Carson has been intrigued by the moon and stars in the sky when we leave in the morning and get home at night. He loved seeing the full moon a couple weeks ago and now thinks the moon is broken because it's not full. :) Carson loves reading books about the sky and just wants to learn as much as he can absorb. We're hoping to make a trip to a toddler's show at the planetarium this weekend since he is so interested in the sun, moon, and stars right now.

We have begun to see some minimal progress as far as potty training is concerned. Carson received a musical Elmo potty book from Aunt Jeri for Halloween and we have been reading it every day. Carson is definitely interested and understands. He has gone to sit on his potty a few times now and has gone poop while he's sitting there... only he's had his diaper and clothes on still. Removing the diaper and clothes will be the next step, I guess. :) We're definitely not pushing it or attacking it aggressively, but we are making some progress. I don't want to push him into it unless he is totally ready. And we've got to master the pushing down and pulling up of the pants first, I think. :)

With Kevin gone to Spain right now, Carson and I are trying to do lots of extra-fun things. We still do something creative a few different times a week, we've gone to a couple story times for 2 year olds at our local library, we've been going to dinner with some of my cousins on Friday nights, we've done some things to remember Great Grandpa Moore and all the Veterans this week for Veterans Day, and we've spent some time at some local playgrounds to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having. Tomorrow, we're looking forward to a fun day of playing and doing fall and Christmas crafts with Anna and Joel, seeing baby Jonah, and visiting with Aunt Julie and Uncle Jason. Sunday afternoon, we are going to try to make it to the MSU Planetarium with our friends Lina and Vayla. Next weekend, we are having Thanksgiving dinner with friends and going to a birthday party for Poppy. This Wednesday will be our last swim class of this session... we're waiting to hear when the next session begins... probably in January. We're just trying to keep busy with fun activities and we are very much looking forward to Kevin's return from Spain! And there is still a possibility that Carson and I will be joining Kevin in Spain sometime next week... we're still waiting to hear what the outcome is... so stay tuned!