This & That

It’s funny, I got used to posting everyday and now that I missed two days, I feel REALLY behind. Funny to me because I missed a YEAR the last time I got behind. LOL! I’ve just been very tired the last couple of nights. We are trying to get into a routine again before school starts, so I’ve actually been setting my alarm on weekdays. Whew…going to take some getting used to!

Before I catch up on the last couple of days, I want to be sure to get it in writing that John was accepted into the Master’s of Music Education Program and will be starting school again this Fall. Prayers are needed as we continue our lovely juggling act!

Here’s our last couple of days…

We went to the zoo in Lufkin with Paula (Dickerson) Lloyd, a friend I went to high school with. We’ve been “Facebooking” this summer and found out we have a LOT in common, so decided to meet up again :) She has an ADORABLE little Kindergartener, Mason! He is full of energy and knowledge and he was our tour guide for the zoo trip! :) It was fun getting to catch up with Paula and let the kids have a neat time at the zoo. Although it was only about 85 degrees, it was HUMID! But we had a lot of fun and ended with a train ride (of course) that was nice and breezy.

Carson has been to the zoo once before and liked it, but this time she really loved it! Calling out the names of the animals and their sounds and running ahead of me were her fun for the day. She asked me a few times, “Ephant?” “Cow?” “Kitty?” with her hands palm up and looking around. I’ve decided Ellen Trout Zoo definitely needs to invest in an elephant or two! Carson wore her monkey “leash” (as John calls it just to irritate me!) and did GREAT! She stopped when I asked her to, slowed down when I asked and overall did really wonderfully staying with me.

Here are some pics. I didn’t get many since I was pushing an empty stroller with one hand and holding on to Carson with the other! But I got a few…

(She calls her face stick sunscreen "make up" and gets a death grip on it when you try to take it from her.)

Cute Ponytail :)

So cute!  We took a couple with all the kids standing and Mason decided to sit down.  Well, Miss Carson had to follow!  I love how she's looking at him, making sure she got the posture down just right.

On the Train :)

Ms. Paula gave her a pretty flower.  She kept it in her hand the whole train ride and the whole ride home.  She loves flowers!

Nana and Aunt SaSa met up with us after the zoo and we ran a few errands. Nana got Carson a paint book! She is in LOVE with her “paint bushes” and is still carrying them around the house. We went shopping today in Lufkin and she asked for “paint bushes” in Target. I think it’s safe to say that painting is a favorite thing right now!

Carson also found Daddy’s dress socks while I was folding laundry. “Socks! Carson want it! Socks on!” Soooo…we put the socks on! She wore them for quite a while on Friday…every now and then taking them off and putting them back on. Cute! She has some of her Aunt Sarah in her, finding it fun to dress up in strange outfits. Hehe!

And here is our Carson list for the last couple of days. Sidenote…I thought several times throughout the last couple of days, “Oh, I need to be sure and write that down to remember!” when Carson did something new, cute or memorable. Now, as I sit down to the computer to actually write them, I’ve found I don’t remember them all :( And it’s only been TWO days. Makes me veryyyyy sad to think of allllllll the things I have for sure forgotten over these past 20 months because I didn’t take time to get them all down. Mommy guilt!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!

Nonetheless…here is what I DO remember…

~ I’m “Mommy”. It’s official. You have not referred to me as “Mama” for over three days. I’m now “Mommy” all the time. There is only one other time you still say Mama (see next item).

~ The other day, we were changing your clothes and I said, “I love……” and you, as usual, replied, “DaDaMaMa”!!! Then I said, “MAMA loves….” and you had no answer for this one. So I said, “Mama loves CARSON!” You giggled your little cute giggle and said, “Hahaha! Carson!” You did this several more times. It was just a sweet moment between the two of us that I want to remember!

~ “Carson want it!” This is your new favorite phrase and you say it about five million times a day :)

~ “I do it!” or “Carson do it!” Second place for favorite phrases.

~ When you want something from another room, you will say, “Carson want it!” and go behind us and push our hineys to get us to the room you want.

~ I seem to now be your official “putter to sleeper”. You have let me (and NOT let Daddy) put you to sleep for the past FIVE nights. Role reversal for your Dad and I! I think it’s been a little hard for BOTH of us to get used to. You seem to be having some sort of sleep transition thing going on. About every other night, you pitch a fit to not go to sleep. You’ll do ANYthing to get us to let you stay awake…high fives, kisses, hugs, pats, laughs, tears, screams, fingers up our noses and yours, playing, talking, wanting a drink…you name it. Tonight was an easy night. Whew.

~ Your Dad already has a plan for your first car and he’s been talking about it for a couple days. Let me just say now, I had nothing to do with it and I’m sorry :P Haha!

~ Today, you sang a song WITH us. Normally, you have a fill-in-the-blank approach to songs. We sing and pause at certain random points in the song and you fill in the next word. You know LOTS of words to the songs, but you’ve always waited to be prompted. Today, while we were getting dressed, you sang the Elmo’s World theme song WITH me…pretty well on pitch! These are all the words you sang with me…

“Lala la la! Lala la la! Elmo’s World! Lala la la! Lala la la! Elmo’s World! Elmo ___ ___ goldfish! ___ ___ too! ___ Elmo’s World!”

~ Your foot is growing nonstop. We went shoe shopping today and it’s so stressful!!! You are between a size 6 and 7. Is this normal?!

~ Speaking of our shopping trip. YOU LOVE TO SHOP FOR CLOTHES!!! You actually showed TRUE preference for some things I was holding up. I found several cute little school shirts for you and as I was adding them to the pile in front of you, you’d say, “Cute!” or “Oh!” You even showed Daddy your favorite one (had a flower on the front) and told him, “See! Cute!” as you held it up. I added a shirt with a cute little owl on the front and you said (and I’m NOT kidding), “Ewww! Back!” and you handed it back to me! I put it in the pile again when you weren’t looking. Later when I was going back through them, you saw the owl shirt and said, “No.” and shook your head. What?! That is so funny!

Shoes are hands-down your favorite, though. Oh how I wish I had a picture of your face when we tried on the first pair today, some little Mary Janes with pink sparkly designs. Daddy didn’t like them and I didn’t like them and as we were voicing this to each other, I looked up and saw you looking at that shoe on your foot and SHINING with joy. I kid you not, you were SOOOOOO excited! It was absolutely precious! You held tight to every shoe we tried on and wanted them all! Except for one pair of rainbow sandals. You said, “Off!” and would not put them back on. You didn’t want them. Just as well, in Daddy’s opinion. He said they were ugly. Who knew you Daddy had such fashion opinions. Really, John?

~ I’m sure I’m missing something but that’s all I can remember. I’m just thinking tonight about how big you are :( You are growing and changing every single second and it’s so very bittersweet! Buying new clothes always makes me sentimental…you were so tiny not so very long ago! Tomorrow, you promote to another big girl room at church and week after next you start school. Time is such a thief.