Grand Rapids Childrens Museum

I'm playing catch-up here still... so bear with me. :)

Back on Saturday, January 9th, we continued our monthly tour of childrens' museums around the state with our friends, the Chapmans. We visited the Grand Rapids Childrens Museum in January. What a great place! It has a nice balance of pretend play, activities, and science. And its a great place for toddlers - and kids of all ages, really! We hope to make another trip back there sometime - and maybe we can figure out a day/time that works well for Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca to join us next time, too!

Carson and Vayla had a blast, as usual. They had tons of fun cooking, having pretend snacks, playing with the foam blocks - building things and jumping into them, playing musical instruments, and most of all playing with bubbles! Here are just a few pictures from our fun day. Be sure to check out the rest in our Shutterfly albums!

It's a Whole New World!

I'm very behind in posting, so I thought I'd just post a quick update of what Carson has been up to lately...

We switched Carson to forward facing in his car seat this past weekend. I had vowed to keep him extended rear facing until he was 2, but we decided to switch him a couple of weeks early since we doubt we'll have time to mess with it in the next 3 or 4 weeks. He wasn't sure about it at first and asked to "please turn around" and he wasn't sure he liked his feet dangling, but he got used to it very quickly. He couldn't believe how many garage doors you see while driving. During his first ride forward facing, he kept exclaiming "Wow, so many garage doors!" (He has a strange obsession with garage doors.). He also loved calling out the colors of the traffic signal lights and the number of each at the intersection - "two geen lights" or "tree red lights." He is also fascinated with the street signs and will ask what the yellow signs and green signs mean, as well as the yellow and white stripes on the roadway. This has opened up an entirely new view on the world for our little man!

One of Carson's favorite things is to "get naked and do running"... he LOVES to run as fast as he can around the house... fully naked. :) He loves to run, regardless of what he's wearing, though. He likes to put his winter boots, rain boots, or random shoes on and "deddy, deddy, deddy, het, GO!" (ready, set, go) around the house... racing as fast as he can, giggling the entire way.

Carson and Jet are still the best of friends. Though, Denver is a very close second these days. Carson will drag Denver around like a rag doll, tackle him on the floor, and lie with his head on Denver's belly while he watches tv... and Denver takes it all... and actually really enjoys it. :) Jet is starting to listen to and mind Carson now, too. Carson will get frustrated with Jet sometimes, if he's running around and knocking his blocks over. Carson will go to the playroom door and point while saying "Jet get in there now, please!" Jet will go in and Carson slams the door, saying "you stay in there, Jet!"

Carson is a very demanding customer at restaurants these days, too. If we just mention something we need - say a fork falls on the floor. Carson will stand up and say, quite loudly, "fork, please!" Luckily everyone has thought it was pretty cute and funny so far, while we work to teach him his restaurant manners. :)

We call Carson our little "divo" (instead of diva). He is very particular about his shoes and clothes, but especially his shoes. We can usually convince him to wear his clothes, but if he does not like his shoes, he will not wear them. Period. He has to be with us when we shop for shoes now, or else I make many trips back and forth to the store returning the shoes he doesn't like. We went through four pairs of winter boots this year, before I found some that he will wear.

We celebrated Carson's 2nd birthday with Great Apple and Great Poppy on Sunday since they can't come to his party. Carson had a lot of fun being Great Apple's doctor with his new doctor kit from them - giving her shots, checking her blood pressure, and listening to her heart. He is loving his alphabet apple from them, as well. He loves learning his letters and has been having a lot of fun with his new toys from them. Thank you, Great Apple and Great Poppy!!

We are now in the countdown to Carson's birthday weekend. We'll be having two parties this year - one with each side of the family. We're looking forward to seeing everyone! Although, Carson says he doesn't want to be 2... he wants to stay 1. :)

Fitness Room Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of the fitness room we've been working on in the basement for the last six weeks. I'll load some pics of the room with the equipment moved in at the end of the week after the new treadmill arrives.

23 months old!

One more month and our little man will be two! Can you believe it? We certainly can't! :)

Carson has continued to learn many new things each and every day this past month. He is speaking more and more clearly all the time. And he has been making some complete sentences... not all the time, but there are certain things he always says in a complete sentence now. His manners are great - he almost always says please and thank you without being reminded. And he is really getting better at pretend play. His latest thing is pretending that he is a frog - he squats down and hops around saying "ribbit, ribbit." He also quite often pretends he is a dog or cat or parrot.

Carson is still such a sweetheart. He tells us he loves us and misses us quite often these days... much more than he has in the past. Just out of the blue, he'll come over saying "hug you, mom-mom (or daddy)..... (we give him a hug).. love you so much, mom-mom (or daddy)." It just melts our hearts every time he does that. If we've been out of the room or something, he'll sometimes run over to you saying "hug you mom-mom (or daddy)... (we give him a hug)... Carson missed you, mom-mom (or daddy)."

Carson continues to progress physically, as well. Our latest house project has been remodeling part of the basement to make a fitness room. We wanted to have some "equipment" in there for Carson, so we bought him his own stationary bike. Kevin didn't think he would be able to pedal it, but Carson hopped right on as soon as it was assembled and started pedaling. Within two days, he was already pedaling it while standing up and riding! He definitely loves to push his limits and master new skills! Carson thinks its a lot of fun to workout with us. He does pullups with Kevin. He attempts to copy my yoga moves (and then knocks me over), marches around the room to some of the walking videos, kicks and punches to Tae-Bo, punches the punching bag, and tries to use my 10-pound kettlebell. He is loving the fitness room, too. I think his favorite part is the wall of mirrors, though... he loves watching himself run around. We catch him making faces and practicing his "I don't know" shrug in the mirrors, as well. :) We really hope Carson continues to have fun with exercise and enjoy it as he grows! We're thinking about signing him up for the Toddler Trot Crim event this year, especially if I end up running in the Crim... but that will be decided in the coming months.

We won't be doing swim classes this semester. Sadly, they changed the times and we can't make it to the weekly classes. We're considering signing up for Kindermusik classes, though. We looked into them a year ago, and after hearing about all the fun Aunt Mary and Rebecca had at their Kindermusik classes last semester, it has sparked our interest in them even more. Now that I'm only off of work every other Friday, though, we'll just be doing the class half-time... every other week. Our first class will be February 5th, assuming we do sign up. It should be fun! We're also considering doing some Little Learners classes at Impression 5, but we're not sure how that will work out with our schedule yet. As well as a Messy Art class that is offered locally. And, of course, we'll continue to do regular toddler story times at the library and other fun things to enhance Carson's interaction with other kids his age.

An Addition To Our Dining Room

We finally got our hutches in our dining room, so this room is almost complete... we still need to hang a few more things on the walls, replace the light fixture, and add a few other finishing touches. But what an improvement the hutches make!! And its so nice to have a place to keep our china, crystal, real silver, and other random serving pieces.

A New Year, A New Decade

Happy New Year everyone! I truly hope you all make this next year and decade everything you want it to be! I am still amazed by the number of posts on facebook that refer to what a bad year 2009 was... I guess I just don't get that. There are ups and there are downs each and every year - and, in my opinion, the downs are only as bad as you make them.

Anyway, I feel like we had a pretty good 2009! Kevin and I have had so much fun watching our little man grow up, learning new things constantly, and developing such a strong little personality. Carson is such a joy in our lives! We're really looking forward to watching him grow and develop even more this year... celebrating his 2nd birthday in about six weeks, being potty-trained, learning even more fun things, developing his language skills (he's improving every day still... he can now finally make the "J" sounds just this week... now we're working on "L" sounds.), and just having tons of fun!

We've done so many super fun things this past year... we saw our little man turn 1... gained a couple new cousins (Mackenzey and Jonah)... saw many of our friends get married and Aunt Lindsay graduate from high school and also said farewell to some great friends and family that moved out of state... went to a Calvin basketball game, the MSU Butterfly House and Children's Gardens, Silver Lake Ski Club ski shows, the JAM and other ski tournaments, Potter Park Zoo, a rodeo, Crossroads Village, and several childrens' museums around the state... spent many days playing at the park, swimming at the lake, and going to toddler storytime at the library... and spent lots of great times with so many of our friends and family, building great memories!

We've taken some fun vacations this past year - to Chicago, to Baldwin/Ludington/Traverse City, and we spent a weekend in Grand Rapids for Sara's and Adam's wedding, as well as a couple random daily and overnight getaways here and there... to Saugatuck, Holland, Grandville, Hudsonville, GR, Ann Arbor, GB. We're hoping to take some more really fun vacations in 2010... possibly Boston in April for a work conference (if my travel is approved); definitely Denver in July/August using our free airline tickets; hopefully taking a road-trip to either Tennessee/Mississippi in July or Destin, FL in October; and we're still hoping we can figure out a time to go to Phoenix since our plans to go MLK weekend didn't end up working out. We also really want to take Carson to whatever the Sea World in Ohio has become... is it Six Flags or something? We'd also like to do some overnight/weekend getaways to different cities in Michigan... we feel the need to explore our state a little more than we have so far!

All in all, we just want to build tons of great memories again this year!! Here's to a fantastic 2010 for everyone!! :)

Chillin' at the Holiday Inn

We still had one more night to use up before they expired, so we decided to have a hotel party on Saturday night at the Holiday Inn Express in Grand Blanc. Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, Joel, and Jonah all came up to join us! We spent some time swimming in the pool and then ordered some Rocco's pizza to eat in the hotel room. We all had a lot of fun - the kids had an absolute blast!!

Merry Christmas!!

We hope everyone had a wonderfully blessed Christmas and are getting ready for a fantastic New Year!! We know we have and are! We had such a great time, seeing all of our relatives, having some good laughs, and just fully enjoying our time spent together. We all received so many great gifts! Everyone was so extremely generous!!

We celebrated with Sara's immediate family and Grandma Jackie on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Nana, Papa, and Grandma Jackie came over to our house to open gifts and spend some time playing. Carson was SO excited to get his train table and wooden train tracks, trains, and accessories! He also received a travel-size Doodle Pro, a wooden puzzle, an orange Shake 'n Go race car, a savings bond, a police cruiser that lights up and makes sounds, and some books.



We then headed to Aunt Sharon's house to celebrate Christmas Eve with Sara's extended family. We had a delicious ham dinner with lots of sides and desserts and enjoyed some good laughs and stories with the family. Carson got so many awesome gifts at that party, too.... a Lightning McQueen Shake 'n Go racecar, some books, some clothes and PJs, a Snake Bite monster truck that drives and makes sounds, a Grave Digger monster truck with ramp to jump through a ring of fire, Little People fire house and helicopter.




Carson had this thing with trying to hide the card up his shirt during our white elephant gift exchange... I think he thought he was putting it in his pocket or something... it was hilarious!



Carson and Mackenzey had fun playing together!



We celebrated Christmas morning together as a family of three. We had a nice breakfast and read some of Carson's books about the Christmas Story. We opened more gifts and Carson was so excited by the gifts and stocking full of fun things from Santa.... a Little People Spin 'n Crash Race Track and his stocking was filled with plastic dinosaurs, some wooden ABC blocks, and a drum. And from Mama and Daddy... a wooden puzzle, a Melissa & Doug Cutting Food set, a set of instruments (maracas, triangle, shakers, tamborine, clappers, sticks, cymbals, and another drum), a rolling suitcase, some books, a Play-Doh play set, games (Alphablocks, Chutes N Ladders, Candyland, and Memory), Mr. Potato Head, an MSU football, and a light-up moon for his room.



We headed over to Aunt Julie's house in the afternoon to celebrate Christmas with Kevin's extended family. We had another delicious ham dinner with lots of great sides and desserts. We had fun catching up with the relatives from the west side of the state that we don't get to see too often. And Carson had tons of fun playing with his cousins!



We celebrated Christmas with Kevin's immediate family on Saturday morning over at Grandpa and Grandma's house. We had a fantastic brunch with lots of tasty dishes and then opened more gifts. Carson was spoiled again... he received such awesome gifts from everyone!! A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse play tent, a wooden puzzle, a wooden learning clock set, Discovery Toys build a vehicle set with a racecar, motorcycle, and airplane, Home Depot tool set and truck, Playmobil 1-2-3 motorcycle, racecar, and airplane playsets, Little People dump truck, paint with water book, some clothes, and some books. After gifts, the kids got a little more playtime in together and we were able to get the first pictures of the 5 cousins together!

Overnight Getaway to Grand Rapids

We made a quick trip to Grand Rapids last Wednesday for an overnight getaway. We had some hotel nights to use up - they expired on the 26th. And I had plans to meet up with my Phike sisters, Katie and Michelle, for dinner on the 23rd at Carlos O'Kelly's in GR. So we decided to stay at a hotel in GR with a big indoor water slide, pool, hot tub, and kiddie pool and splash pad. We all had a blast!! Kevin and Carson had a great visit with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van while I was at dinner with my friends, too. It was a great little getaway!!

The pool area was AWESOME!!

Carson LOVES the water!!

Here comes Kevin!

Me: "Do you want to go back to the room and warm up?" (Notice he has purple lips?) Carson shakes his head and says "no-no, more swim!"... he would not give up!

Trying to stomp on the spraying water...

22 months old!

I'm running a little behind with this.... but Carson is now 22 months old and he continues to learn and absorb so many new things each and every day. We are having so much fun with him! He is growing more and more independent all the time. He refuses to let you help him eat cold cereal anymore - he actually does very well with it on his own and makes very little mess. He is starting to get to the phase where he doesn't want us cutting up his food for him if it can be eaten whole, either. He wants his toast cut in fourths, his cheese left as a whole slice, and his pizza left as a whole slice so he can just pick it up. We made a trip to the mall to see Santa the other day. Afterwards, we just went up to the food court to eat lunch - Carson, of course, wanted pizza. So we got a slice of Sbarro pizza - their slices are enormous and Carson did not want the slice cut at all. He had his arms fully extended, one on each side of the slice, and ate it all on his own... it was hilarious to watch... and he ate about 3/4 of the slice!! Guess he was hungry!

Carson's imagination is getting stronger all the time. He is so fun to play with. He gets in his car or van and tells us he's in a spaceship and is going to Mars to rescue Goofy... he is basically re-enacting one of his favorite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes. He is creative when he plays with his castle and pirate ship guys in making the king, queen, and pirates talk to one another, eat dinner together, take turns sleeping in the bed and riding the horse, climbing the stairs to the castle turrets, etc. And he has started liking to build houses with his blocks now instead of just towers.

Carson continues to love playing sports. His latest thing is football. He LOVES to toss the football back and forth, hike it, and be tackled. He still loves to play basketball and soccer (he has a really great kick, actually!). He is pretty good with his golf clubs, too... although we have to put them away quite often and have Carson sit in time out for trying to hit the dog or us with them at times. He really wants to learn tennis. He carries his tennis racket around with him quite often asking us to teach him... we'll save that one for summer time and being outside, though. :)

Carson continues to be fascinated with the moon and space. We've been giving Carson one of his gifts from us each day for the last week or more so that he isn't quite so overwhelmed with new toys all at once for Christmas. One of his favorite gifts so far is a moon that we've hung in his room. It lights up and goes through all the lunar phases. Carson just loves it! He also loves learning about all of the planets and space. He knows most of the planets' names in our solar system now.

Carson still loves learning his numbers and letters. He counts up to 14 on his own quite often and will sometimes go up to 20, but 14 is pretty normal. He still loves picking out letters on shirts, in magazines, and in books, as well as shapes and colors. His favorite color continues to be yellow... unless we're talking which socks to wear, for which he still prefers red. :)

Weekend Fun!

We started out our weekend fun on Friday morning. We went over to our friend Melissa's house in the morning and Carson got to play with her daughters, Adalin and Kira. He had lots of fun cooking pizza in their play oven and playing with all their fun toys! And Sara learned first-hand how awesome a grain mill can be! Melissa grinds her own wheat and makes her own bread every week. And the bread is absolutely delicious! So much better with the freshly ground whole wheat flour! Hopefully, one day, we'll be grinding our own flour and making our own bread every week! I think a grain mill will probably be my next large kitchen investment.

On Saturday, we met our friends Lina, Sean, and Vayla in Ann Arbor at the Hands On! Museum. We had another great time together! Carson gets so excited when he hears we'll get to see Vayla. We told him on Friday night that we'd be going to the museum and seeing Vayla the next morning and he got very upset when he was told we couldn't go right then. :)

The Ann Arbor museum was really nice. Its a pretty big place with lots to explore and discover. It's aimed more towards older kids, though. And we were kind of disappointed by their preschool room. But we still had lots of fun! We just probably won't be going back there until Carson is quite a few years older.

After the museum, we took a walk through downtown Ann Arbor to find a place for lunch. Zingerman's Deli was so busy, we decided to go some place else. We ended up at a thai restaurant called "No Thai!". Carson got to eat his first thai food - and he loved it! He really chowed down on the drunken noodles with chicken! We're so glad he enjoys all the different ethnic foods!

After lunch, we took a walk back to our parked cars. Carson and Vayla didn't want to hug goodbye this time, as they usually do... instead they wanted to kiss! Carson had his first kiss from a non-related gal!! :) It was so cute! We are really enjoying our tour of all the kids' museums on the Impressions 5 reciprocal list! Next month, we may head west to Grand Rapids to check out their childrens' museum.

We then headed home for naps, some shopping, and dinner with Papa, Nana, and Aunt Lindsay at the Olive Garden to celebrate Aunt Lindsay's 19th birthday.

After dinner, we headed into Swartz Creek for the 25th annual Christmas parade. It was soooo cold! But it could have been worse! We bundled up Carson in the stroller and braved the cold, and we're glad we did! Carson loved seeing all the fire trucks and vehicles decorated with Christmas lights! He also loved the floats - he pointed out Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus on one of the floats and then he got to see Santa and his reindeer on top of the last fire truck in the parade! It was a great parade!

Then, on Sunday, we took Carson to his first live production. We went to the Wharton Center in East Lansing to see Click, Clack, Moo! He was mesmerized by all the singing and dancing. He laughed at the funny parts and clapped when he was supposed to - he loved it! We'll be looking for some more live productions to take him to in the future.

So that was our weekend, in a nutshell. Quite busy and going non-stop, but we had a ton of fun and made some great memories, which is the important thing! We've got another busy weekend coming up again next weekend. We'll be going to Grand Rapids on Thursday night and using our two free hotel nights at a hotel with a big, indoor waterslide! We'll get to see family while we're out there and we'll be checking out the Dutch Winterfest in Holland and Fred Meijer Gardens! Can't wait!