Look Who Is TWO!!!

My big boy is 2. For those that don't know he will be a big brother in September. Heaven help me! He is so fun though. Learning his colors, counting to 10, recognizing shapes and letters. He has a great memory. He loves reading and his new favorite show is Dora. He helps me with driving by yelling out whenever there is a stop sign. "Stop it sign" Or "stop it!" He is always learning to tell cars to get out of the way....that comes from both his dad and I....haha! He is a good eater. He is going through a phase where he is always worried about "scary monsters" I am not sure if he is really scared or just likes to say it. He does get scared, so we stick to safe shows and experiences as much as possible. We are loving being able to play outside again. Thank heavens for SPRING! He is still a mommas boy. He asks me to "hold you" all the time. He loves to sing and knows many songs and makes up some too. He is all about who's turn it is. Mommy's turn, or Carter's turn. Hopefully one day he will learn to share toys and not horde them when other kids are around. He is fun!

Again a swim birthday that Carter would not get in the water for....guess we need to rethink that for next year.

He did love his train tunnel cake. 

Party favors! Trains and bubbles!

We had lots of cousins to help celebrate. So that is always fun. Thanks to everyone for making the trip to celebrate with us.

My sister was a huge help, thank you! And Carter loved playing with her kids. We love when the Aland's come to visit.

Daddy was ready to swim, but Carter preferred playing with toys.

Lucas was Carter's favorite person to drag around or try to keep his toys away from. Lucas was a good sport!

Big Helper

Carter LOVES to help. He helps clean the floors and carry the laundry. Recently he has liked being able to help do the dishes, he gets more water on him and on the floor but it is pretty cute. He scrubs the plates and dishes. One morning I bravely let him help flip pancakes. He helped Jim shovel the walks yesterday, with a shovel just his size that Grandpa Jacobs bought him. It was so cute and hard work for a little guy.

I can't believe how big and smart he is getting. He surprises me sometimes with letters he knows and recognizes. Although he does LOVE starfall.com. He knows some of his colors and shapes. I swear I haven't drilled anything into him, but I really think he loves learning. He sits so still during story time and nursery lesson time and just takes it in. 

I can't say exactly all the letters, numbers, etc he knows but here of some of his favorites. 

Letters - o, s, p, t

numbers - he knows 8,9,10 and is getting about about 1-5 in order as well.

Colors - yellow, purple, white

shapes - oval

Some other fun things from January, he was on a pizza kick for a while. He always said he wanted pizza. So I would cut up bread and act like it was bread sticks/pizza. 

He was calling himself baby for a while, But I have been working on his name and he now can say Carter Hickman. He LOVES hide and seek and is pretty good at hiding. He is really quiet sometimes, other times he gives himself away cause when you say " is he behind the couch?" and he is somewhere else he will answer "no"

He sometimes helps say the prayer, as long as it is short.

He uses sounds when referring to names of things. Such as dogs are ruffs, trains are choo choos, fire trucks are weehoo weehoos.

It's so funny when he is looking for something and covers his mouth, instead of cupping it, and says' "ruff, where are you?" He also whispers things sometimes and it is the cutest thing.

The love I have for this kid only grows and I think he is pretty special. He really tries to do the right thing. Besides being bossy, he is pretty great!

Goodbye 2012

December is almost gone, which means so is 2012. WOW, where does the time go. I keep seeing more gray hair and wrinkles so I know I am getting older. Carter is talking more and it is fun to see him grow and develop his personality. He loves Chocolate, but who doesn't!

Highya, highya with grandpa, running around like a mad man. My dad would chase Carter around yelling highya, highya. At first Carter needed Grandma to run with him away from Grandpa, but then he would enlist others or run by himself. He loved it and would always ask Grandpa to Highya. He also says where are you? in a sing songy voice, when he is looking for someone. He got to drive Grandpa's old blue truck and help with feeding the cows. He wouldn't let Grandpa touch the steering wheel and would move it back and forth. A bit of a crazy driver, he especially loved it when Grandpa would push on the gas and they would go faster through the field. He has started yelling "WAIT" and running after people. He can repeat any word you ask him to say but still isn't understandable when he talks. He only wants to drink Juice and says that all the time.
He wasn't sure about the sled ride, but he loved rolling the balls on the pool table.

He refers to anything Christmas as "HO HO." When he wants to listen to Christmas music which he knows some of the words to, it is HOHO. When he was talking about Santa it is HOHO. Carter did sit on Santa's lap this year. He wasn't sure about it but he didn't cry.

 On Christmas Eve Carter opened PJ's that were under the tree, then he was ready to open the rest of the presents. But he had to wait to open his one million presents till the next day.
He may have gotten a little spoiled at Christmas. I can't help myself. He has loved his train set, which I knew he would. He likes his zhu zhu pets that I bought for $0.01 off of Amazon. He also likes his Little People airport set he got. He likes to take Ruff, his dog everywhere with him. He liked Ruff's friend that he got for Christmas for a day, but then it was back to old reliable, Ruff. He LOVES Curious George and didn't mind the long car rides when he could watch that the whole time.

He loves reading and I love buying books! It must be the teacher in me.

The first part of our trip to Canada was to Edmonton for my niece, Sophie's funeral. It is incredibly sad, how can you even deal with something like that. There is some help in knowing she was not well and had a hard life on this earth. So it is nice to think that she is with Heavenly Father again and is out of pain and is with her brother Tanner that suffered with the same problems. The funeral was nice, hard, but a nice way to honer Sophie's life. This is my favorite picture of Sophie with her mom. my brother and sister in law were so good to Sophie and Tanner and were amazingly strong to make the best of the situation they were given. Tanner and Sophie were angels that were placed in the most loving home with amazing parents and siblings. We will miss Sophie! We were glad we were able to be with family at this difficult time and will continue to pray for Sophie's family to heal.

 We did manage to check out West Edmonton Mall briefly while we were in Edmonton. It is a huge mall with a ice rink, an amusement park, and a wave pool in it. We rode a few rides and then just walked through the mall taking it all in.

We came home to A LOT of snow. I tried to take Carter out in it but he couldn't walk.

I have a bunch of video that we took but it will be a miracle if I get around to and figure out how to get them how I want them. 2012 has been a great year. Jim has been busy with work and I have been keeping busy teaching pilates and keeping up with Carter. We are blessed with so much and want for nothing...okay maybe we do want to increase our family, but that never seems to happen on our time schedule, so we patiently wait and pray. We have our health and wonderful family and friends. All the necessities and more than we need with our wants. Oh, if I am being greedy I guess we would also like to travel more in 2013, but that again is an extra.

Halloween Howl

So I know I said I would post more pictures from summer, but I haven't even been on blogger since then. So I am skipping ahead to Halloween.
Once again I have to credit my friend Natalie for lending us some amazing costumes. She keeps us looking good. This years theme was 101 Dalmatians  in case you can't figure that out. He didn't love being in his costume but he did catch on to trick or treating pretty fast. He wanted to eat each treat as soon as he got it. But he would walk up to doors and was ready for his treat and was happy to walk away with what they gave him. Jim is always such a good sport. He was Jasper or Horace  which ever one and a giant dalmatian. What a good guy!

Every age is fun and it keeps getting more fun. Some of Carter's latest, climbing up on everything. Chairs, couches, ladders at Grandma Hickman's, whatever he can get on. The past few days he is testing me and throwing his blanket and soother out at nap time so I will keep coming back in to give them back. Sad that I have put an end to that game and they are now laying on his floor while he naps. Guess he is out growing them or will decide to stop throwing them out. Only problem is that when he wakes up and his blanket and soother as on the floor he can't roll over and go back to sleep cause he wants them. So his naps have been a lot shorter the last few days. UGGHH!!
Grandpa and Grandma Jacobs came and babysat for a few days in October while I went with Jim to a work conference in Arizona. Carter did great and I didn't worry a bit. He loves being Grandpa's helper and loved having them here. I loved having a few days to enjoy eating out with my husband and having a little time to myself. Ahhh, remember what it was like before kids when your time was your time. Those were good times.
I have started a kid swap with a boy a few months younger than Carter. He goes to their house one day and Payne comes here another day. Carter was a little nervous and scared at first but I have to drag him kicking and screaming when we leave. He and Payne are SOOOO cute, running around chasing each other and jabbering with each other. They were having so much fun together and I love it! Today I was trying to remember something I needed at a store and he puts his finger up to his mouth and says ummmmmm. Like I have done before apparently, it was so darn cute. He is saying a lot more now, new things all the time. Choo choo, no, yes, please, clean up, just to name a few. He is trying to say whatever we say. He will get things when I ask him to and close doors. He is loving stuffed animals as friends lately and tries to feed them what he is eating and give them drinks.
He is able to walk up and down stairs without help or holding on to anything.
He had his first Emergency room visit in the middle of the night. He woke up one night and was not breathing very well, so we took him in. He was a trooper (with the help of shows on the ipad) but the lack of sleep the next day, plus not feeling well did not lend itself to a great day. He had the croup, so not fun but the steroids and breathing treatment they gave him helped, thankfully.
We are having fun with him. He has finally caught on to the fun he can have by playing with his cousins at Grandma Hickman's house, Hooray! Now he will run and play with the other kids and it is so nice. His cousins are so great and they have had to be patient with him to come around, but he has.
Just a few things that he is up to. But he is yelling for me from his bed, since waking up from his nap with out his blanket and soother. The joys, guess I will go get my baby that is turning into a little boy.