For the record

I was talking with my sister, Rachel today and she reminded me of a few things I need to blog before I forget them. 

First, a couple of weeks ago my mom, my sister Sam and I took my kids to dinner at McDonald's.  We ate in the play place and sat at two small tables next to each other. During the course of dinner, we moved the high chair between the two tables trapping Carter.  As stated previously Carter has a hard time communicating.  So, when Carter was done eating lunch he noticed he was trapped. 

First he pushed, it wouldn't move so he became angry.  He pushed harder, then the rage began.  He staring hitting the highchair.  That was not enough to dispel his rage so, purple with furry he began biting the chair.  My mom and sister could not contain their laughter.  I am working to help Carter communicate his needs but sometimes at the end of a long day the kid just needs to bite a chair. 

The next story involves the same family members.  After a typical target shopping trip (tantrums, whining, falling, timeouts) we were headed to the parking lot.  The kids had eaten all of the snacks I brought.

Carter was whining that he was hungry.  I tried to explain to him that we would eat in a couple of minutes when we were home.  This just made him mad.  So, I held out my empty cupped hand and offered him invisible food.  He then took the "food", looked at it, became more angry and threw the "food."  I almost peed my pants. 

The last story is from today.  I was at my sister Rachel's house.  While there Carter was calling Rachel's dog Penny something we could not understand.  After hearing him say it a couple of times I realized he was calling her Money.  Apparently he knew she was a currency and figured Money worked well as a substitute.

Love you Carter. 

(This post is dedicated to Carter's future wife, who will one day come to me with her sweet, beautiful, wild, belligerent son and wonder where he came from.  I will say to her, "Please refer to family blog book 2010, in the month of July."

Grant

My baby is one year old! 

I can't believe how fast this year has passed.  Grant is now walking everywhere.  A week before his birthday he started taking steps and about two weeks later he decided walking was going to be his primary mode of transportation. 

Grant also had his physical a couple of days ago.  He was just over 24lbs (75%) and 33 inches tall (off the chart)

Grant loves fruit and anything sweet.  He does what I call his "chocolate dance."  If you feed him chocolate pudding, ice cream, etc he starts dancing.  

Grant has a very sweet temperament.  He is quick to smile and usually only cries if you take away food, he is hungry or sleepy.  A couple of weeks ago he was cutting two teeth and had double ear infections and I thought I lost my sweet boy, but once he was feeling better he was back to his happy self.  

Grant will clap his hand if you ask him to.  He tries to figure out how things work.  He can use my cell phone.  He is very curious and smart.  

One thing he does that the other two didn't do much is, get into EVERYTHING.  Right now he likes to open the dishwasher, climb onto the door and play with things in the dishwasher. 

Carter

May 20th Carter turned 3 years old.  I know that is really old information.  On Carter's actual birthday Dean was out of town and Uncle Jeffrey came home from his mission.  So, June 10th we had a birthday party for Carter and Grant with our family. 

Carter is still his crazy self.  Last week some of my family was over after I had put the kids to bed.  The doorbell rang and I thought maybe my sister had decided to come over.  At the door was a man asking if we were missing a little boy. 

After putting Carter to bed he decided to open his window, remove the screen, climb out the window and play with the cat in the street.  Thank heaven for this man who found him and brought him home.  So now, if you come to our house, you will see we have taped the window screen so Carter can't escape.  This story is a pretty good example of what daily life is like with Carter. 

Anyhow, Carter had his physical a few days ago.  He is 32lbs (50%) and 40 inches (95%)  He has an appointment with a speech therapist to see if he has a delay.  I am hoping if I can help him communicate that it will resolve some of his anger.  I can imagine how frustrating it must be for him not to be understood and I am sure that is why he acts out. 

Carter is a good boy.  I love him and am grateful to have him.  He has taught me so much. 

Abby

Abby and Mrs. Ormonde

My big girl finished kindergarten a couple of weeks ago.  I can't believe how fast the school year passed.  She is such a smart girl and is a great student.  The last weeks of school were a lot of fun.  She had a party, a kindergarten concert and a field trip to the zoo. 

Abby is also a great helper around the house.  She is so sweet with her brothers.  She is always willing to play with them so I can get something done around the house. 

Abby also has very funny things to say.  I am now passing the computer to Dean so he can tell the story. . .

We went to the lake on Monday with Maclynn and Gill and the kids were having a great time playing in the water.  Abby let me know that she needed to go to the bathroom so we pulled the boat over to shore so I could take her to the restrooms.  When we were getting off the boat some other people on shore let us know that they had found and killed a rattlesnake earlier that day.  This scared Abby and as we walked to the restrooms she asked if it was the same kind of snake that didn't have arms, while she asked she waved her arms in front of her like short little T-Rex arms.

Apparently the snakes scared her so she went to the bathroom quickly and we got back on the boat.  About 30 minutes later she complained that her stomach was hurting and I asked her if she needed to got to the bathroom again.  She said she did need to go to the bathroom again and now she would have to go back to "rattlesnake island" so she could go to the bathroom.

(Thanks Dean)

Anyway, we are enjoying the summer.  We did swim lessons and Abby did pretty well.  She now loves to swim underwater.  We also have season passes to the water park and she loves going there.  I don't know what recessive Mexican gene I have passed to Abby and Grant but they are super tan and we still have several weeks of summer to go.