As Mariah Carey said...

"You'll always be my baby."

My baby boy turns THREE YEARS OLD today! I really can't believe it. Each year on our birthdays, my parents would gushingly (what?! it's a word!) look at us and say, "______ years ago at this time, we were rushing to the hospital!" or " I remember the day you were born!" Yada, yada, yada. Well, now I know why! It's so true! There are parts of those 2 and a half days (I was in labor for a long time) before Carson finally arrived that are blurry, but it is SUCH a life-changing experience, that most of it is crystal clear. And I think that birthdays make us focus on the birth day, and we remember our kids as those fragile little babies. THEN, we look up and they are no longer babies, and we go through all the cliches about parenting, particularly that common one: it goes by so fast! He's such a fun kid, and he has personality coming out his ears--his cute little Carson ears.

So, I thought I would write about some of my favorite things about Carson Michael at 3 years old:

*He LOVES his family--immediate and extended. Sometimes when one of us is holding Sydney, and the other is in the same room, he'll corral our legs and push us together and say "We're a FAMILY! And we're all TOGETHER!" Carson loves his sister and wants to be with her all the time and give her hugs and kisses. He asks when she'll be able to play with him, because he wants to share his toys with her. (Yeah...we'll see about that one.) He cannot wait to see any of his aunts, uncles or grandparents. He talks about them all the time and his eyes turn to saucers with excitement if I tell him we are going to see any of them that day.

*He LOVES his friends. Just yesterday he saw me writing thank you cards, and he decided he wanted to write cards to his 3 best friends. So we spent almost 30 minutes making cards for them, and he made sure that I addressed and stamped them. He kept saying with a grown-up inflection, "Oh, they are going to LOVE this!" (You three, you know who you are and will be receiving cards soon.) He prays for them each night, and almost every day he asks about E, N and H and all his other friends too, wondering if they can come over and play.

*He truly, in his heart, wants to please us. He forgets this sometimes, but we know it is true. He loves to bring me flowers and make things for Daddy. When he obeys the first time and I say "That makes me so proud!" he often says, "Do I make you smile?" Oh yeah, Babe. Lots.

*He is very funny! His language has totally taken off, and we can understand about 85-90% of what he is saying. (The percentage is probably lower for others.) He is imaginative and creative and likes to find ways to make us laugh. And then sometimes he makes us laugh accidentally. ;) His most recent and repetitive joke is when he says from the bathroom, "Mom! I got a present for you!" and when I walk in, he points to his poop and says grandiosely (what? It's a word!) "TADA!"

*He loves to snuggle with us and sit in our laps, which I hear rumor is not necessarily the norm for 3 year old boys.

*He is (almost always) very kind to other children. At least when I've watched, he talks nicely to kids we don't know and smiles at me like: "I made a friend!"

*He is grateful. He doesn't seem to take gifts for granted. Whether it is a churro at Costco or a day at the zoo or a new bottle of hand soap just for him, he says Thank You sincerely and often several times. I love that about him.

And now, you you can all walk down memory lane with me, here are some pics of C-dog's first three years of life.

Year ONE:

Year TWO:

Year THREE:
I think another line in that same Mariah Carey song says, "Oh, boy, you never can escape me. Oh, darling, 'cause you'll always be my baby."

Yep. Pretty much!

Mom's shoes.

As mentioned, my family has a weakness for nostalgia and pictures, in particular, are our precious family wealth. Here's a gem:

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This is my little bro, Mike, circa 1981.

This is Carson 2 weeks ago.

"Mom! My bottom's not working!" The sequel.

Some of you remember that conversation when C-man was a little constipated. Today we had a variation of it. I heard this from our master bathroom:

"Mom! This toilets not working! I need to move to the other potty!"

So we moved his bare bum to the toddler pot in the front bathroom. As usual when trying to have a movement, Carson says:
"Please leave me alone."
"Sure."
A few minutes later:
"Mom! This potty's not working either! I need to try the big potty!"

So he moved again to the big toilet and sat and concentrated and grunted for a few minutes. Finally:
"Hey Mom! This toilet's working! I went poop!"

Maybe toilets are magical. Who knows?

BTW, this morning at 5:45 am, Carson woke up calling out that he needed to go poop. Evidently, the "toilet" wasn't working then either, because he produced nothing, but also produced no further sleep.

Actually, the muffins were quite tasty.

Well. That's a first.

Yesterday afternoon our doorbell rang. We were all in the front rooms, so I answered it. There were 2 neighbor girls there, about 7 years old. I've met them in passing before a few times. One of them said "Can Carson come out and play?" Huh? Um.....I....don't know. Trent and I just looked at each other with surprise. Carson, on the other hand, JUMPED up and headed for the door. "I guess so!" I said. We hurriedly discussed that one of us should still be out there in the cul-de-sac (I mean, they're sweet girls, but I'm not letting second graders babysit), so I took the first turn. He chased them for a couple minutes (with his helmet on--funny) and then the one who lives right behind us said "Do you guys want to come jump on my trampoline?!" Of course, Carson says "YEAH!" and starts following her, while I'm quickly trying to assess the situation and choose my proper course of action. He's not even three! My gut is telling me I should not let him go play by himself at someone else's house; they are really nice, but I don't know them very well. However, our backyards are connected, the trampoline has a safety net, and if I stand on our deck, I can see their trampoline just fine. SO, I quickly set out some ground rules: 15 minutes, and only on the trampoline where I can see him--not in the house. He had a blast, which is a double edged sword: I love hearing him laugh hard and have fun, but that means future requests will come soon and often. I could hear and see how sweet the girls were to him. (I think they think of him as their little baby doll or toy thing.) I sat down to read, and I could hear when they were done, so I told them, over the fence, to walk straight up the driveway and I'd meet them out front.

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Evidently, in the 45 seconds it took to walk from the trampoline to the driveway, Carson had invited the girls (or they had convinced him--I'm still not sure) to OUR house. Oh great. "The 'dirls' are gonna play on MY play park!" He announced, and they happily were following. New set of questions: Do their moms know where they are? Is it OK with them that the girls are here? Is it inappropriate for Trent (adult male) to be in our yard supervising 2 little girls we barely know, even if they kind of invited themselves over? (We decided yes, but that meant it was still my turn to supervise.) Of course I let them, and suddenly, C-dogg was in heaven.

For about 10 minutes he had a little harem that attended to his every whim. But then I could see that the girls were a little more interested in our swingset than in Carson. And I could also see that our discount swingset was perfect for a preschool kid who weighs 35 pounds, and not so perfect for 2 elementary girls swinging hard--it was rocking pretty good. Carson was no longer really playing WITH them, but just watching in amusement. I waited patiently as long as I could, then made up some excuse about how I needed to get ready for dinner, so we needed to "say goodbye"--which was my polite way to say "Time to go, dirls." I'm glad we have young families in our neighborhood, and both families are really kind and friendly. But they've already come by twice today asking to play with Carson in our yard, and I'm wondering if I'm ready for this new stage of childhood!

That's more like it.

This picture is kind of how I imagined having 2 kids would be like. Older sib would happily entertain and thrill younger sib, who would squeal and smile in delight for hours on end at the wonderful amusement while I snuck into the other room to remember what being productive feels like. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh, my! Let me catch my breath after falling off the chair laughing at what I just typed. Truth is, this scene was so rare, that I almost tripped racing to get my camera to capture the occasion. I was reading an article in a parenting mag the other day (I DO miss reading a novel, but right now my reading time comes in 45 second intervals, so magazines have to do) that talked about mothers' guilty secrets; like one mom confessed her daughter really didn't turn out the way she had hoped--which was, basically, a mini-version of herself. That's not my secret. Despite any complaints, I do love the little boy Carson is becoming. The other secret the article talked about was having a favorite child. The author made a good point in the fact that when there is more than one child, it's hard not to draw comparisons and have a favorite. But, the good thing is, your favorite will change--day by day, season by season, hour by hour. And I really resonated with that. It took away some guilt I have the my precious eldest has driven me to drink (ok not really, but he has driven me to tears) out of frustration. When my 3 year old was yelling at the top of his lungs from his bedroom: "I WILL! NEVER! TAKE! A! NAP! NEVERNEVERNEVERNEVERNEVER!!!!!" for 30 minutes straight, and my little 2 month old was laying in my lap smiling up with complete adoration--take a wild guess who the favorite was at that moment.

BUT, later when Sydney was finally asleep after fussing for an hour, and Carson was sitting in my lap making up hilarious stories about his imaginary dog and saying he was "Mommy's boy, NOT Daddy's boy!" I had a new favorite. After having kids, I have a whole new appreciation for unconditional love. I've never experienced anything that strong before in my life. Liking the kids may be a challenge (daily, sometimes) but loving them sure doesn't seem to be.

Old and new friends

It hasn't been hard to make friends here in Salem, since we moved about a year and a half ago. It has been hard to make GOOD friends. It's hard to leave a place where family are your friends and friends become family. It's easy enough for me to meet other moms, but to really connect with them, let alone if our kids like each other or our husbands connect--that's another story. A couple weeks ago, I found out another friend down here that I really like and want to spend more time with is moving. She's the fourth friend I've made here that has moved away! There are some awesome gals that I look forward to getting to know better, and I know that deep friendships take time. I'm not lonely by any means, just trying to be patient.

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So, in light of these observations about making friends after a move, it has been such a blessing to reconnect with a couple we went to college with. We just had dinner with them last night and I told them that I TRY not to mention first and last names in the same blog post to preserve a little identity security. But those of you who know Seth and Christi from PCC, you don't need me to type their last name. They live in a nearby town where Seth is an associate pastor at a small church. We weren't close with either of them at school, but always liked them. Christi was my RA one year and she was good friends with my roommate, Kelli, so we spent some time together. But I'm so grateful God placed them in our lives at this time, b/c we really seem to click with them as a couple, which is way harder than finding another girl friend, don't you think? Our boys are about a year apart, but get along pretty well. I wanted to post a picture of their cute family. Their kids' names are Isaiah and Ivy. As you can see, the kids were not amused at all by my photo request. So, here's to making new friends, keeping the old ones, and making new friends OUT OF old ones. :)

Green thumb? NOT from his mother.

Here's some pics of Carson participating in one of his favorite helping activities at Gma Jo-Jo's. She's got a bunch of gorgeous flowers in their yard, and last summer he began the routine of helping her water them. He even has his own watering pot. As you can see, he takes it quite seriously!




Inside, Carson thought that Sydney didn't need a SOLO photo shoot, and asked to hop in.

How much fun can one kid have?

And how many pictures can his mom post? Both are yet to be determined. Be prepared...I'm having a hard time deciding which ones to post.

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At WiNeMa, there is a little inlet that takes water from the ocean to the lake. It changes in size and shape, but there is usually a large pool of very shallow water, and it is a tad bit warmer than the ocean. It is the PERFECT place for a (n almost) 3 year old to play for hours. This is a pic from up on the dunes. You can see Carson down at the bottom.


Sydney and I enjoyed from the sidelines. It was a sunny day with some good wind, so I was comfy/warm in a vest, but Carson was fine in his swimtrunks too.

Syd slept through most of the beach fun.
We went to the waves for a while, but Carson soon noticed that we gave him a lot less freedom when there's an undertoe involved.
So he decided back at the inlet was a better deal. He sat forever digging in the sand, dripping it on his legs, making sand piles... ...and running, running, running through the water.
We were joined on the beach by Uncle Chad and some other friends too for some wiffle ball and football.

The next day, Aunt Michelle took Carson fishing.

Here they are sharing a worm. NOT the worm they used for bait.
If I had a nickel for every time I wanted to do this...Again, Sydney watched the fun and has to wait a couple more years to partake.

Trent calls this picture "before it all went horribly wrong." Trent even gave the BIG water slide a trial run before taking Carson in his lap, but evidently, they just went too fast and lost control a little when they went into the water. Carson ended up going under for a second and was a little traumatized. Yeah for lifejackets! (And plenty of adults around.)
This is the dry slide--also very big! When we went on it together, his leg got off of the burlap sack a little at the end and got burned just a bit. He says to me, very tactfully: "Mom, I'm just gonna go on this with Dad. He has more practice." I mean, he's the one that almost let you drown, but WHATEVER!

What is camp without some BUNKS?

Here's the whole clan, including (far left) Jeremy, Wendy and their little girl Miley. They are kind of adopted bro and sis into our fam. Then there is Chad (Trent's brother) and wife Jess, Gma, Michelle, Tara (above), the 4 of us and Gpa. It was a great weekend! Sorry for the boring commentary, but I thought the extended fam would get a kick out of the Carson pics.

A few pics for now...

As mentioned, we had a great time this weekend. Although we call it camping--because we are at a "camp," cook and eat outdoors and usually have to walk to get to a restroom--we were not roughing it too badly. Since we had such a young baby, the registration people took pity on us and gave us a room with our own bathroom, which was great. I was determined to play some games this year, and I succeeded in initiating a very competetive game of Pictionary. This is my father-in-law, Phil. This is about as uptight as he gets.Oh, the water slides! A wonderful addition to WiNeMa since I was a kid. This is Carson on the smaller of the 2 slides. It is a perfect size for him: big enough to be scary the first few times, but after successful completion, he went on it about 20 more times and we had to drag him away kicking and screaming.

This was his 2nd try. We had our little friend Della (behind him) giving him some help and encouragement.

I often realized my camera was back in our room when I wanted to take some pics, so I'm waiting to get some of the shots I took on my sis-in-law Michelle's camera. WHICH reminds me of my favorite Carson quotes for the weekend, which I heard one evening after I had been at a long rehearsal:

"Shell. Shell! Can you get your camera so I can show Mom a picture of my poop?" I'm not kidding. I had helped him "get started" on the pot, then had to go sing, so his aunties helped him, uh, wrap up, as it were. However, apparently he was so upset that I wasn't there to complete my assistance duties and to admire the size of his fecal matter that he asked his aunt to take a picture to show me later. And she did. And I saw it. It was then promptly deleted from the camera, so I'm afraid you will all be denied the honor of witnessing it yourselves. You lucky, lucky people.