Date Night.

Thursday night we went to the Houston Texans football game with three other couples. We were lucky enough to have suite tickets, thanks Kate and Dan! We had a lot of fun and it was great to hang out with our good friends without all of our kiddos. Made us feel like we were back in college. Mike and I had a great time being together. With Carter being sick all week, it was a treat to be in the car without a crying little one. We missed him, but it was much needed sanity for both of us and time to just be together. Thanks for a great time everyone and thanks Stacie for watching Carter for the night.

Mike and I. This was the view from the suite.

The Ladies - Marie, Me, Kate and Lindsay.

The Guys- Josh, Mike, Scott and Dan

Auction.

A good friend of mine, Lynette, is having an auction starting today for a wonderful and worthy cause for another fellow blogger. Please see her message below, or go directly to her Nei Nei Auction here.

This is her post from earlier this week. I have to admit I am a blog lurker too and it's strange how you can feel connected to other bloggers, their families and lives without even personally knowing them.

"Ok, I admit it. I lurk blogs. I can't help it, really. I get interested in people's lives and their adorable children. What and where they go on vacation. Their hobbies, interests, beliefs. Then, before I know it, I feel a connection to a stranger that doesn't know I exist. A connection based on my passion for lurking and their passion for blogging.

That's why, a little over a week ago, I was shocked and overcome with sadness when I began reading the newest post at NieNie Dialouges (a blog I frequently lurk). I learned that Stephanie and her husband, Christian, had been seriously injured in a private plane crash (for more information watch here). The news hit me as though I was reading about my oldest, dearest friend. My mind filled with thoughts of her four beautiful children and I offered a silent prayer.

This Thursday, along with many others throughout the blogging community, I will be holding a silent auction on behalf of the lovely Nielson family. All of the proceeds will be donated to the Stephanie and Christian Nielson Paypal Fund set up to pay for medical expenses and household management while they recover. With Love, Lynette"

Appointment.

We took Carter in to see the pediatrician this morning. The outcome, two ear infections (this is a first for Carter who's been lucky enough to go almost 15 months without one) and most likely he actually had a concusion from his backwards fall off the chair at church on Sunday. Nothing we can do about the concusion but continue to watch him and he's doing better so no real worries, and Carter will be on antibiotics for over a week for the ear infection. So all in all, he wasn't just teething, and I'm glad we went in for his appointment. Hopefully he'll begin to be himself again and start sleeping through the night. Until then, Mike has a long weekend off and with two of us we'll be sure to provide the much needed TLC and snuggles to get him through. Thanks for your best wishes! Hugs, A

Sickie.

We've had a rough few days at home since Sunday. Both Mike and Carter were sick, luckily Mike started to feel better yesterday, but poor Carter had a rough night battling a fever. The past two nights have been pretty bad considering normally he sleeps for a good 12 hours, and instead has been waking up about every 2-3 hours. I feel so bad for him, I know he feels bad and the poor thing just can't tell me what hurts, or what he wants to make him feel better. He's still drinking milk, just not eating much at all. He's been pretty lethargic and yesterday afternoon, well all day, just wanted to be snuggled. A lot easier said than done with my growing belly. At this point in my pregnancy picking up Carter has become more of a challenge and then holding him is also a challenge. He pretty much sits on my tummy like a little shelf underneath my chest. I guess we all just make due. It was a big relief to have Mike come a little earlier than normal to be able to help snuggle with Carter so that I was able to get some things done.

The picture above was from yesterday morning, I finally gave in and put him in bed with us, where he slept until 9:30. He takes up a lot more space in our bed than he use to but it was such a relief to be able to sleep for an additional two hours. He woke up this morning and doesn't feel as warm, so it seems as though his fever is finally on the way down. I thought he was doing so much better, so I took him out for a little bit and one of my good friends commented about how lethargic he looked. I plan to give it until after nap time and then call the doctor. I always feel so silly calling to talk to the nurse, so I tend to avoid it. The bad thing is my personal nurse, aka. my mom, is out of the country for three weeks and is unavailable, which makes it even harder. Hopefully this is just a little bug, or a bad case of teething and will all go away. I can hope can't I?

Baby Acheivements.

It amazes me how quickly babies and toddlers grow and develop and how much information they are able to take and learn. We started teaching Carter some basic sign language a few months ago and I'm so happy that we did. He can now sign, more, eat, milk, and all done.

In addition he can also show you where his ears and nose are, oh and he likes to show you where your nose is too. As for actual talking, he still says, dadda, momma, and has started to point and say 'this'. Carter has also figured out how to climb on the couch, into the rocking chair and this past weekend has started to push himself on the lion scooter around the living room. He'll wave hello and goodbye, and if he really likes you he'll blow you a kiss.

Something else entertaining, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but he totally knows what the drive thru window is. As soon as we place an order he immediately makes the 'more' sign expecting french fries. I know this is not rocket science, and these are only baby achievements, but I am excited to see and experience his growth. He becomes more and more of a little man each day, constantly growing and working on his independence. We're always learning more about who he is and relish in the moments that we see his personality develop. Now if we could only do something about his stubborn streak...

Carter riding his scooter.
This is the face I get all of the time when he looks up at me jabbering.

New Kicks.

What do you do when your little person has chubby feet?

We're not talking just cute baby chubby feet. We're talking real chub on the tops of his feet that make it utterly impossible to fit his two little feet into real shoes. See Carters cute little feet from the beach below. While in South Carolina I was on a mission to find shoes for Carter. The biggest reason I did this was the fact that the shoes we went out there with no longer fit him. We both hit a growth spurt while gone. So, my hunt began for shoes to fit these chubby feet......Four malls, several department stores and two Stride Rite stores later I found these. New kicks that fit his chubby feet and the bonus is that they protect his cute little toes too. He's a size 5.5 wide, definitly a genetic trait he got from his dad and not me. So I am now a Stride Rite shopper mom. In fact I liked them so much, I went back to the store here in Texas today and bought the next size up. I hate to buy shoes for myself, let alone for other people. These new kicks weren't cheap but worth every penny. I think we'll start calling them his 'fast shoes' because he seems to take off running once we put them on.

Face Lift...

I feel a much needed blog face lift coming my way... this will have to do until tomorrow morning. Don't be surprised if it keeps changing in the next couple of days. I have ideas in my head and now it's only a matter of actual execution in photoshop elements to make them happen. I do like the brown on the sides, I'm also going to attempt some new things there too. Oh the ideas and possibilities are endless. If only my time were endless these days as well.

It's funny, I don't normaly like change. But I feel totally refreshed when changing random things, like moving furniture around, putting highlights or lowlights in my hair, and in this case giving the blog a fresh look. After all, don't we all need a fresh look every once in awhile?

Off to bed. I've become a night owl lately and no matter how early I attempt to go to bed, midnight seems to creep up on me and that's when I actually get to it. I think it's the quite in the house and time to myself. I feel rejuvenated after getting to play with photoshop tonight, it's the little things that make me happy. It's amazing how creativity just seems to roll in at late hours in the night. Alright, I'm really going to bed this time. Goodnight!

No Theme.

There really isn't a rhyme or reason to this post. Things are going well, just going for the most part. Sunday was the longest day of the week for me, but today was so much better. Meaning, Carter had a much better day with no real meltdowns. That alone is a success compared to our experience at church yesterday. It also helps that we spend a few hours at the gym each morning. I'm convinced his time there significantly increases his happiness. He loves to be able to roam free and play with the bigger kids and I love having a little 'me' time. Mike went back to work and only has a few more weeks left in the tax group and then will be heading back to audit. He's been through the longest busy season yet this year. Hopefully he'll get a little downtime when the new baby comes early November before busy season steps into high gear again.

Here are just a few pictures from last week to show our family and friends how much we've all grown in the last week.

Finally caught a few smiles on camera. Carter 14 months.

This is Carters new favorite spot. Stiegers kennel. He crawls in and out all day. He takes toys, his sippy cup and snacks in there. I've learned to pick my battles lately and this is not one I chose to fight. Besides, it's actually pretty cute. Not the most sanitary, but cute none the less.

Here's our growing baby boy at 27 weeks. In the last two weeks I've noticed how much he's grown because it has become increasingly difficult to bend over anymore. He also moves around all of the time. A lot more active than Carter was. Last night when I was trying to fall asleep he was doing somersaults. Finally I had Mike put his hand on my tummy and even Mike was surprised at the super sized kick he received. So we're thinking, soccer player. :) We took some full body pictures, I think even I was surprised at what I was looking at in this one. Whew! We still have three more months to go.
This is where Mike usually is, working on something or studying. I joked with him after taking this picture and told him this is the look he gives me all of the time. Good news, his time at the desk paid off last week and we finally got our taxes sent in. Now we're looking forward to our refund and economic stimulus checks. Which will most likely go straight to paying for baby 2, thanks to Mike's new health insurance high deductible plan... yeah, I'm still a little bitter about this one.

Saturday.

It's been one of those weeks where everything and everyday seems to fly by in a whirlwind. Last week our good friends had a baby and moved to the other side of town all in just a few days. This alone kept Mike very busy helping his best friend. Carter and I have also been working on surviving. My baby has decided he no longer wants to be a baby and wants to be independent. We are working on the tantrums and becoming a big kid. It's been a trying week, especially on the days when he decides to only take an hour nap instead of three and the nights when he wakes up crying because of incoming teeth. No matter what our day is like, when Mike comes home he is the happiest kiddo around. You never would have guessed he had a melt down just hours before. Mike is always so willing to play with him and has also been a lifesaver, it's getting hard for me to bend over these days so Mike has been taking over Carters baths each night.

We had a very productive Saturday, almost too productive, we both woke up Sunday morning sore and so very tired still. Saturday was the first time in a long time that I can remember having Mike available to spend time with and not have to study. So we spent the day working on his "honey do" list and finishing other projects around the house, while trying to keep tabs on our little man. Who these days doesn't seem to stay still longer than five seconds and then gets up and runs to whatever has caught his eye. We managed to repaint some walls in the house, trim, mow and edge the yard and cleanup the flower beds and re mulch. We also cleaned the inside of the house and have worked on decluttering, most likely some pre-nesting. Oh, and we also washed the cars.... See the video below. We decided to leave the hose on a little for Carter this time in hopes he would be more helpful. Not so helpful, but totally entertaining!

Carter and Mike pulling my nice clean car into the garage.

Since our beach trip, Carter loves to climb in and out of these chairs. He's almost figured out how to get onto the couch. Sometimes he manages to make it, but mostly he's half an inch too short still.

In the meantime, tropical storm Edouard made landfall today in the Houston area. Mike's office was closed downtown so he was able to stay home with us. For the most part all we felt from the storm was a lot of rain this morning. By the afternoon the sun was out and it was back to being humid. It was nice that Mike was able to stay home and we also appreciated the rain to help green up our lawn. The most annoying part of the storm was the non stop news coverage this morning and the mass shopping the city seemed to do to stock up on water and such. So glad that we have planned ahead and try to keep food and water storage and 72 hour kits for situations like these. So all is well in Houston, atleast on the west side where we are. Mike heads back to work tomorrow and we only have three more days until our next Saturday.