Playdate Wednesday and Snormy Thursday

Yesterday we had our weekly playdate (the one I've just joined) - it's usually on Fridays and at Holly's house, but she is going to be out of town, and then her family was sick so we moved both the day and location :) Hope and Ella also called in sick, so it was just Amy + Hayden and baby Caroline, along with the boys and me at Amy's house. We got a super late start and were over an hour late because someone (I won't name names) refused to get ready and dilly-dallied all morning. However, once we finally got there we had a great time! Carter and Hayden played together very well while Amy and I chatted and took care of the babies. We had yummy peach tea and snacked on Monkey Munch that I brought. Amy made rice krispie treats too, but I was afraid I would eat the whole pan if I started on them so I kindly turned them down. Also, since Amy is a decorator, I loved looking at all the beautiful things in her house.

We went to check on them (things had gotten quiet), and found Carter and Hayden sitting together, watching cartoons and eating snacks in the playroom:

Charlie has always loved to hold things - Gigi first noticed it, and we think it helps him feel secure. Here is a picture of him holding onto my finger for dear life (he does this quite frequently).

We got Carter's registration information for Mother's Day Out yesterday - yay! I'm excited for this new chapter in our lives. We also found out that one of our really sweet neighbors is going to be his teacher - yay again! And, they are friends with our friends, the Joneses so hopefully we have enough connections that Carter will be the teacher's pet. Ha!

Last night, we went to Office Max for more office supplies for Alan. While we were there, I bought every Sesame Street learning activity book I could find (almost $60 worth!!). He learned so much in daycare, and I just hope to keep his mind active. I'm so surprised by the things he knows. I discovered through the Sesame Street books that he knows almost all his shapes - even pentagons, hexagons and octagons, and can tell the difference between them all (and also the difference between circles and ovals, and squares and rectangles). He's pretty good with letters and numbers too, but still gets some of them mixed up. I also found some really cool paint brushes - they have paint tubes connected (washable paint, of course) and you just squeeze it to get the paint to come out into the brush part. You can also refill it with regular washable paint. I'm so excited about all our new fun stuff!

For some reason, Charlie was up at least three times last night, so I was really tired today. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not, but Carter also had a very trying day. We did manage to fit in lots of fun activities this morning before the meltdowns began...

Carter LOVED the Sesame Street activity books, and he's good at following directions (circling the thing that's different, or two items that are the same, or tracing dotted lines, etc...)

We had a piano concert...

We clipped coupons, built robots out of blocks, watched cartoons and played with lots of toys. After lunch, it was naptime. I think I've started something, as Carter has napped on the couch 3 out of 4 days so far this week :)

I think I woke him up by talking on the phone this afternoon (that's why we should nap in our bed instead of on the couch). He sat straight up and looked at me, got down and walked by and patted Charlie on the head, and then he disappeared (all without one word). After a minute, I realized all was quiet and I didn't know where he was. I called him a couple of times, and he finally replied with, "What?!?" I asked him where he was and he said, "I'm trying to sleep in here!" He had curled up on the couch in our living room :)

It stormed pretty badly all afternoon. Of course, we now refer to this as "snorming." :) When the lightning flashed, Carter asked, "who's that taking my picture?!?" Every time there was lightning, he laughed and said someone was taking his picture. Ha! Because of the storm, we had to stay inside so we played with our cool new paintbrushes, and got paint all over us! This picture is before the paint had gotten everywhere. By the time we finished, Carter had to take a shower to rinse it all off!

Tonight we had to run a couple of errands (again) so we ate dinner at Five Guys. Really good, yet really expensive hamburgers. Carter loved it and ate a ton! He also loved the peanuts that were free.

In the car, he put his headphones on funny and covered one eye, after which he said, "Arrr! I'm a pirate!!"

Carter went to bed very easily tonight, thank goodness! Charlie is "talking" to Alan right now though, so I'm not sure if he'll go to sleep anytime soon ;) Hopefully one day we will all be on the same schedule and manage to get a full night's sleep!