Little Blaise is Carson's cousin that is almost exactly one year younger. They love playing together when we go to Baytown. He had a fun Trucks themed party a few weeks ago. Even though the theme was trucks, they had some awesome old cars out front for the kids to play on.
Sebastian is looking very James Dean...
Little divas!
I'm sure he was telling me how FAST he was going... oh Lordy, help us when he turns 16!
The bigger kids had a blast racing remote control trucks on the course Taylor set up!
Patient observers...
Sure, LuLu, I'll hold Miss Kitty for you while you drive off in the super cool Lightening McQueen car! ha
Not a trip to Vivi & Doc's without a golf cart ride...
Carson would not leave Blaise alone and kept showing him his front loader...
Painting! Carson was done the fastest (i.e. he was ready to go back to playing trucks).
Lottie & LuLu were much more diligent painters...
Being boys... playing trucks in the dirt.
Cake time!
Blaise approved!
Fun times with family! Happy Birthday, sweet Blaise! We love you!!!
I wanted to try to document a little bit of Carson's life at THREE, so here we go. I know I'm missing a ton, but this is the first stuff that came to mind.
Here we are.... another year down!!! Our sweet (not so) little boy is THREE!!! WOW!!!
(Birth, 1 Year Old , 2 Years Old, 3 Years Old!)
Where do I even start??? How about a few pics from his actual birthday (yeah, I realize it was over a month ago)... I posted a few videos back on his actual birthday.
He got a few new trains.... Gordon & Henry.
Ready for school!
We had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon, so Mommy just brought donuts to school. I don't think Carson minded. The kid LOVES donuts!
A few more little presents after school....
His request.... the Stanley train
and signal crossing...
Playing with the new trains...
Yep, Mommy needs to tighten the elastic on his shorts... There is no sagging allowed in our house!
Ghetto kid
We asked him where he wanted to go eat for his birthday, and he quickly said "CHEDDARS!" So, we went to Cheddars. He ordered his favorite, chicken & french fries. He even shared his fries with Stanley and Thomas.
He picked a cheesecake sampler at the grocery store versus a small cake or cupcake (which he didn't end up eating... Mommy did!) He also picked out a birthday balloon!
Of course, we let our sweet little birthday boy sleep in Mommy & Daddy's bed on his birthday!
So a little about Carson these days....
Carson is FULL of energy and just jumps all the time when he's happy!! People that don't know him will comment, "Oh, must have just had some sugar today" or something along those lines. We just respond, "Nope, this is him all the time!" To which, the person usually responds, "If I could only bottle some of that up." For real! He does have some calm times though. He can be a great snuggler and will happily lay and watch TV or play iPad if he's tired. He LOVES to be in Mommy and Daddy's bed, even if it's just to watch TV by himself. I admit, he almost never slept with us, but I think I know that our one-on-one time is dwindling, so we let him sleep with us a couple times a week and usually one night on the weekend. The good news is that he loves his bed too and never has a problem going to sleep in it. It's just a special treat if he gets to sleep with us. We try not to do multiple nights in a row because that's when he starts thinking that's the norm. He loves for me to hold his hand. He loves to give hugs and kisses. He is my sweet, sweet boy!
Carson has the BEST smile and laugh!!! Those dimples and smile are just irresistible!
At this stage, his greatest gift, no doubt, is his ability to light up a room and bring a smile to any one's face. No matter where we go, he makes friends. There is not a shy bone in his body. When we walk through the grocery store or restaurant, he just says "hey" or "hi" to everyone. He walked up to an older 'grandma' type at Market Basket and just jumped up and down and said "It's my birthday!" She just beamed at his cuteness and started asking him questions. They both loved it!. Restaurant servers just think it's so cute when he shouts "Sprite, please!" when they are taking drink orders and "Chicken & French fries, please!" during the food order. When bring a refill or food, he always says "thank you!" I have to admit, it is pretty darn cute. We've worked a lot on manners, so it's so nice when that pays off. They do quite a bit. I'm so proud of his use of 'please', 'thank you', 'excuse me', and 'yes ma'am' and 'no sirs.' We went to a Mexican buffet after church and as soon as we walked into the food area, he declared, "It smells delicious!" One of the servers walked by right as he said it and they just smiled. Daddy fished a tournament last weekend, so Carson and I had a date to DQ. He was friends with everyone that worked there before we left. He might have stolen the show at my brother's wedding. Carson owned the dance floor and photo booth! He also certainly made quite the entrance to the ceremony and decided he wanted to help with our reading as well. There is an older lady in a wheel chair a few doors down that lives alone. We go down there every now and then and she just LOVES Carson. He just brings a smile to her face. He plays with her little dog and just talks her ear off. When he had his swimming lessons a few weeks ago he just talked and talked. His teacher asked me if he was ever not happy. Of course, the answer is "yes", but her point was that he was just a joy. She loved their little conversations. This boy will talk your ear off! I LOVE how their little mind works at this stage. It's just hilarious. It's also funny (and a little scary sometimes) the stuff they say that you know for a fact was something they picked up from somewhere else. As I mention below, Carson's memory is unreal.
He is really starting to get into the 'make believe' world. He loves to play trains, cars, planes, pirates, etc. and pretend different scenarios are playing out. He always will yell out, "What are we gonna do???" if something bad is happening. He frequently acts out scenes from TV show or movies. He's always been great at independent play but also loves for us to play different things with him. He LOVES to 'wrastle' and play 'hide' [and seek]. He LOVES to play 'hide' and 'roar' with Daddy. He LOVES for Andrew to jump out and scare him. He just laughs and laughs.... and it's a pure joy belly laugh. Love. Lately, he's been into playing football in the backyard, even though his favorite part is just watching Mommy and Daddy throw the ball.
His memory is fabulous! He knows everybody and remembers everything. So, better not do anything he doesn't like because he WILL remember. :-)
I can also tell that the "3's" are the testing phase. Yep, we're there. He clearly knows when he's not supposed to do something, but will give you this little smirk (that's pretty hard to resist even though I know what he's about to do is not right) and see what Mommy or Daddy are going to do about it if he does it. He is also PERSISTENT. Oh. my. gosh. He's also got a stubborn streak... wonder where he got that?!?! Even though he is a tester, if he thinks he made you 'sad', he gets so upset. He wants everyone and everything to be happy. There is a willow tree on the way to school that looks sad (since they are all droopy), but everyday we try to make it happy by being nice to our friends and listening to our teachers. It sounds silly, but it works. He will cry if he thinks he made the tree sad and will say with tears in his eyes and sniffles running down his nose that he wants to make it happy. This also worked this past weekend at my brother's wedding. When he didn't want to wear his bow tie and suspenders at first, I told him that Uncle Dave and Erin were going to be so sad if he didn't wear it since they picked it out for him for their wedding day. Done deal. He didn't want to take it off after that.
Potty training is still in progress. He rarely has tee tee accidents, but that afternoon poop can still be a struggle. His teachers asked if we could go back to pull ups for a little while until he got the hang of going poop at school. I felt so bad because they were having to clean him up almost every afternoon there for a week or so (and poop in big boy pants is NO FUN). Amazingly, he does keep them dry and just occasionally still has a poop accident. He did really good the past week, so they were happy to go back to trying just big boy pants again. Of course, the first day he did that, he had an accident again. He just gets so busy and occupied (it usually happens when they are outside playing) and forgets about it. At home we have a big boy pants only policy (except at night and naps on the weekend). He's getting better at telling us if he needs to go even though we still make frequent trips just to be safe. He's been awesome about holding his tee tee if we are in the car or something. I just wish he would TELL us when he needs to go because right now it's really up to us to make sure we take him regularly. We'll both forget and then that's when the accidents happen. :-(
Oh, and your Mommy thinks it's pretty cool that the future King of England decided that he wanted to share his birthday with you! :-)
Carson's birthday party was a couple weeks after his actual birthday. It's blogged about here in case you missed it. He had a BLAST swimming with his cousins and friends!
Carson.... WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!! You wear us out but bring us SO much joy!!! You are such a light in the life of everyone who knows you. You are so smart, so bright, and just so full of life! You are spirited and certainly know what you want. We are so excited to see you take on the role as big brother in just about 3 months! We love your sweet and tender side and know you will be an awesome big brother!! Please don't ever stop wanting to snuggle or hold my hand. I know you already don't like me to call you my baby, but you always will be!
