Carson's Antics

Tonight as I type this, Carson is lying awake in his crib talking to himself (it's 8:13 pm). Just a few moments ago, he had reached over the rail and was slamming his easel against this crib. He was soooo wound up prior to bedtime that he broke down in hysterics when Daddy tried to read him his books. He was inconsolable so Daddy gave up and left him in his crib sobbing. I let it go for about 5 minutes. Just as I put my hand on the door to try to calm him down, the crying stopped.

Here is how he got so wound up!




Carson is talking a lot more now and once a day or so we are overjoyed to hear him put two words together. But for the most part it is a whole conversation with one word over and over and over and over until you want to duct tape his mouth shut if you hear "mo-mo" (lawn mower) one more freaking time. Oops. Bad mommy! I mean, we are so proud of him!

He accidentally discovered the release mechanism on his car seat. I looked back the other day to find him loose as a goose, floating around in his seat. Weighed the option of yelling "NO are you CRAZY?!?" versus ignorning it and praying to the toddler gods that it was a fluke and he would quickly forget it.

As novice parents, we are quickly learning that some behaviors are best ignored. If you make a big deal out of it, he is MUCH more likely to do it again. Like, say, the key in the sub-woofer. So far, so good. Maybe one day I will be able to say it was a one time event!

He is back in the stage of taking his shoes and socks off in the car. Forgot how much I hated that stage the first time! Not enjoying it any more the second time around.

This week he took up screaming like a girl. Thanks a lot to who ever taught him that one! Ear piercing, glass shattering screaming. Fortunately he usually only does it when he's extremely happy and goofing around.

One way to keep him happy (and when he's happy, we're happy) in the car, is to get him to repeat what we say. It starts with animal sounds, moves to numbers, then the alphabet. Yesterday we introduced "Oh yaaaa" "Booya" and "Damn it" , yes, you read that correctly. In the middle of our car speaking game, I accidentally knocked something of my lap and cursed before I could censure what came out of my mouth. Sure enough, our little parrot popped that one right out! Crap! I mean Oops!

I am a really lame mom when it comes to art projects, thank God for daycare! To relieve some of my guilt, I broke out the oversized chalk for the easel. Note to other parents, chalk is an activity that should be supervised--- Red chalk does NOT come off of white shirts or carpet easily. We switched to crayons but quickly discovered that he does not stay on the paper and now our vinyl floor is a rainbow of waxy fun!

Outside we tried bubbles. That wasn't a success either because Carson didn't quite understand that only one end of the bubble pipe was for his mouth. He dunked the entire thing in the bubble tray and ended up with a mouthful of soap. Then when I looked away for one millisecond (okay maybe more like two minutes), he dumped the entire tray of bubble juice on his head. At least we didn't need to add anything to his bath water that night.

Brushing teeth is still a battle. We tried the electronic Tigger toothbrush but that only scares him. I tried letting him stand on his stool and brush with me. It was going pretty well until he saw me spit out the toothpaste. Within 30 seconds, the bathroom mirror was splattered in spit and water as Carson tried to imitate me.

We've had a pretty fun week! He's eating better and sleeping in longer so stress levels are lower all around. Now we just want some warmer weather!!!