Adjusting

I hate to speak too soon, but it really feels like we are finally starting to adjust to me not working (Carter and I, that is). Alan left yesterday for Houston, and we had a really good evening last night and day so far today. We even ran a few errands - just the boys and me. That's not to say that I'm not completely exhausted, but Carter is starting to calm down a bit and get used to not doing so much all day long like he did in day care. He's even starting to listen to me a bit more :) He is also learning to play better by himself and he loves pushing his tractor and trucks around the house. If Charlie will just decide to sleep through the night, we'll all be doing much better!

Last night we had to go to Wal-Mart, and Carter was being so sweet that I told him he could pick out a prize when we were done. I really wanted to talk him into a motorcycle, since he always loves playing with those at Evan and Andrew's house, or even a monster truck (he already has a couple, but loves them). He couldn't decide on any of those and finally decided on a race car. It was tiny! I figured out when we got home that it's some sort of collectible... I had to get it out of its acrylic case and literally break it off the stand so he could play with it. Ha! Leave it to my child to pick out the non-toy on the toy aisle. Last night he insisted on sleeping with his "baby car" as he calls it, so I snuck into his room after he was asleep to rescue it so he wouldn't lose it.

Here it is in its acrylic case (it's smaller than a normal matchbox car)...
Carter decided to help fold the laundry while I was feeding baby Charlie. I came back into the room not knowing what to expect, and this is what I found... He had folded all the wash cloths and put them in a circle around the dough bowl on the living room table (along with his toy golf ball)! My little helper...

This morning we went to our first storytime at the North Shelby library (Chelsea library would be much closer of course, but their storytime is during our soccer time). I almost canceled our spot in order to go to a playdate at Oak Mountain with the mom's group from church, but decided it would be too difficult trying to keep Charlie cool and out of the sun and keep up with Carter. I'm glad we went to the storytime because it was so much fun! The storyteller, Ms. Christy, is so talented - she has a beautiful voice and sings lots of songs. Even in her normal talking she uses a sing-song voice and lots of rhymes to keep the kids engaged. I wondered what we'd do for an entire hour of stories, but there were only 2 short books - the rest was songs/activities/crafts/snacks/etc, all mostly related to the subject of the day (today was buses and wheels).

We also joined the library while we were there - I think this is my first library card in at least 10 years! How sad is that?!? That library is so nice - their children's department has lots for kids to do (tables with puzzles, etc). We checked out a Humpty Dumpty book and a Hermie DVD, but Carter was so fascinated by the whole process that we checked out two more books (at separate times) using the self-checkout stand. I'm not quite sure what will happen when we have to return the stuff though (I tried explaining that we are just borrowing them, but not sure that message got through).

After we left, I decided to go to Captain D's. This was my once-every-two-or-three-years trip. I crave it sometimes (but only about once every 2-3 years), and go there seeking greasy fish, and then remember why I haven't been in 2-3 years, and so the cycle continues ;) Today was the day I craved it, and I know Carter likes fish too. I also thought that we'd probably eat lunch with Holly tomorrow, and she thinks that fast food fish is an abomination to humankind (as it probably is) so today was our day. On the way home, Carter exclaimed out of nowhere, "I LIKE fish!!!" :) When we got home though, he asked for shrimp, or "shramp" in his little country voice.

After dinner tonight, we went for a walk. I always think this will get some energy out of Carter, but it does a better job to exhaust me, dragging 2 babies around the neighborhood :) I'm waiting on everyone to wind down and go to bed so that I can too!

To catch up a little on our weekend... Friday, I went to the mom's group at our church, and Holly was able to come with me. It was so much fun! The kids played well in the nursery, and I really needed that adult time (not that my kids aren't fun and intellectually stimulating, but you know...). After that, I had to run like a madwoman and get everyone packed up for Charlie's portrait session in Tuscaloosa. He did really well, but didn't smile at all. They asked if I wanted to come back later for another session, but I told them to just finish it as long as he was making sweet faces. On the way home, he filled up his diaper and THEN he started smiling. Isn't that the way life happens sometimes? That night, we went to dinner at Moe's with the Joneses and the boys all had fun playing in the little courtyard area. They also found a couple of Evan's friends from his school to play with.

It looks like Carter was telling a fascinating story here...

Charlie tried to get out of his seat by himself!

Charlie hanging out at home (haha!)

Saturday, we did NOTHING! I didn't even get out of my pj's until 5:00. It was wonderful! We had so much to do around the house, but not much of it got done at all. Alan tried cutting grass (the weeds were almost up to our roof since he's just now able to cut grass after his surgery). It turns out that his lawn mower was left "on" and the battery was dead, so he had to go buy a battery charger. Sunday after church when it was through charging, he got about 3 feet into the yard before running out of gas. Ha! I guess it wasn't meant for us to get much done ;) In case you are about to call our homeowner's board, don't - he was able to go get some gas and finish cutting the grass :)