Carson is growing up so fast! He'll be 16 months old tomorrow! He's learning so much everyday still and turning more and more into a little boy and leaving the baby stage behind. We finally dropped the daytime bottles about 3 weeks ago, which wasn't a big deal to Carson at all. He switched to drinking his milk from a sippy cup with no complaints at all. We still give him a bottle just before he goes to bed at night, though. I think he'd probably do well dropping that one, too, but I think we'll wait a little longer before we try that one.
Our little man is learning about all kinds of different animals. He can say many of them, too... "goak" (goat), "puh-pee" (puppy), "kee" (kitty), "nay" (horse - he won't say horse for some reason, just the sound it makes), "eep" (sheep), "gi-guh" (tiger), "kuhk" (skunk), "bay-uh" (bear), "der" (deer), "ow-uh" (owl), "raff" (giraffe), "i-no" (rhino), "uh-bruh" (zebra). I know you all may not care about how he says the words, but I share them in this way more for my benefit to look back on, so please bear with me. :)
Carson is doing well with matching things lately. He has a color matching game that he does very well at. The two pieces with the same color objects on them fit together like puzzle pieces. He matches up the colors, though he is still learning their names. He'll say "ging" (green), "boo" (blue), "egg" (red), "orj" (orange), but he hasn't really put it together that that is the name of the color. Though he did know his shorts were "orj" the other day, so maybe it clicks more than I think it does.
Carson is also doing well with his numbers. He can say the numbers 1-10. We're working on the visual recognition of the numbers themselves, which will be a long process I think. He does recognize the number 8, though. He will count with you, too, though he only really chimes in on some numbers (3, 5, 8, 9) on a regular basis. He'll get some others in there at times, too.
We have quite the little monkey on our hands. Carson LOVES to climb. Anything and everything. He climbs all over the furniture and recently figured out that its way more fun to step on the handle on the recliners and climb up over the side of the recliner than it is to climb up in the seat. He climbs up on the railing in Aunt Jeri's gazebo to climb up on the table now, too. He's quite determined and fearless when it comes to climbing.
Carson absolutely loves his books.
He'll disappear at times and everything will be very quiet. I'll find him sitting somewhere looking through some of his books. He will sit with his children's bible songs book for a good 15-20 minutes, just flipping pages, finding the matching button for the song, pushing it, and listening and bouncing to the songs. Carson loves to sing and dance still, too. He is really shakin' his little booty a lot lately. We were considering putting him in a music class this summer, but we've decided to forego that until fall, most likely. Summertime is just too busy as it is.
Carson is a great little helper these days. He always wants to know what I am doing in the kitchen. I've started letting him climb up on one of our step stools so he can see what I'm doing and help out a little. He likes to help stir things and pour things in. Carson also loves to help Mama in the veggie garden. He has been helping me plant veggies and marigolds. He likes to help dig the hole and help put the dirt in around the plant. It takes much longer to do things when he's helping, but we both enjoy it too much to care. :)
Carson is also learning some manners. He will cover his mouth when he coughs (when he remembers) and he likes to cover your mouth when you cough, too. We're still working on other manners, though. He still thinks its quite hilarious when he burps or farts, but we're trying to get him to say excuse me, rather than laugh.
Carson still just loves playing outside. He really loves his swing - you have to make him get out sometimes. He still really enjoys his playhouse and his sandbox, too. His favorite thing to do outside, though, is picking up sticks - but he's not too happy when Jet steals them away from him. :)
For the last week or so, Carson has been obsessed with "buh-bose" (bubbles). He finds bubbles everywhere. He also thinks that all of the cotton from the cottonwoods that is floating through the air everywhere are bubbles. He will look out the window or run outside and point, with a huge smile on his face, exclaiming "buh-bose!"
Carson continues to be a great eater - let's hope it continues! Right now his favorite veggie is probably asparagus, but he likes to take bites off the stalk, not have it cut up for him. His second favorite veggie is probably broccoli and/or cauliflower. His favorite overall food is definitely pizza, though. Followed by fried eggs over hard and quiche. He loves chicken and he recently had ham (the real stuff, not the deli meat) for the first time and he loved that so much, too. He's still not a huge beef eater, though he does like to take a few bites off your cheeseburger now.
That's probably a long enough update for now - I realize I've written quite the novel (sorry!). Can you tell we're so excited about everything our little guy is doing these days? :) It's just so much fun - and the best thing is that it keeps getting even more fun as he grows and changes!
Yesterday, we took a trip to the west side of the state. We'd planned to visit Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van Heukelum in the afternoon; Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca in the late afternoon; and then head to the Saugatuck for dinner and beach time in the evening. But we got a call early in the morning that Great Grandma was sick in bed and wasn't up for visitors. We decided to head out to the lakeshore anyway since we really didn't feel like working around the house. We went to Saugatuck first and were pretty disappointed with it. We'll go back again sometime, but probably without Carson or when he is much older. Its not the place for kids, that's for sure. We barely saw any kids at all. There were tons of people out and about... and absolutely no place to park. 
So we left Saugatuck and headed to Holland State Park. It had started to rain pretty well when we were just leaving Saugatuck and it continued to rain while we drove through Holland and into the state park. We didn't get out, just looked around, it was just raining too much.
so we didn't get a chance to see them, unfortunately. Instead, we went to dinner at Russ' with Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, and Joel. After Russ', we headed over to an elementary school playground in Jenison for a little bit until we started getting rained on again. On our ride from the restaurant to the playground, Carson was in the backseat yelling "Do-el" (Joel) every few seconds... for the entire 10 minute ride. He was just so excited to get some extra playtime in with his cousins!
