First Halloween!

 

   

 

Kate resting on her fake, stuffed Mermaid boobs.

We had a fun Halloween. Tons and tons of kids came by! We ended up running out of candy by 8:30, and I had bought what I thought was a lot. We sat on our front porch with the twins and the candy so Kate could people watch. She absolutely loved it. It exhausted Carson.

 Some observations on this Halloween…

1. The kids in our neighborhood started at 7 PM.
2. We saw a ton of Supermans and Princesses.
3. I am always amazed at the amount of 14 year olds who don’t dress up and still trick-or-treat.
4. Why are kids saying Happy Halloween instead of Trick-or-Treat? I clearly remember being a little tike singing ‘Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.’ Perhaps I was just a dork.
5. I was also surprised to find out that kids are now making candy requests…’No, I want the Snickers. Not the Twix!’
6. We had one 13 year old boy (who wasn’t dressed up) who wouldn’t even get off his cell phone or say Trick or Treat.  He simply shoved his plastic Wal-Mart bag at us.

Halloween Eve

Carson, our little witch warlock wizard, is under that hat…trust me.

He is such a little ham.

Modelling new outfits from their Granny (my mom).

We are set for the trick-or-treaters. We are expecting a big turn-out because there are a ton of kids in our neighborhood. Damn, this is my diabetic nightmare. I never loved sweets until I was told I could never ever have them again. *Whine*

Boys & Their Toys

Carson & his red monkey head rattle.

When I was pregnant I had several women tell me not to buy many toys for the twins because they won’t use them much. That has not been the case with our twins. Kate and Carson are wild about toys, and less so about things like the exersaucer.

They seem to like Baby Einstein products the best — which is strange because they have a Baby Einstein exersaucer that they hate with a passion — but honestly anything that is colorful and makes noise is also a hit with them.

When we were in San Antonio for Papa’s funeral, my Uncle Mark and Aunt Martha gave the twins a red monkey rattle. Let me tell ya…they are all about that monkey rattle right now! Carson has claimed it as his own, which has become a bit of a problem when you have two babies rolling on the floor together and now wanting the same toys.

To be fair, it’s mostly Carson who is wanting whatever toy Kate happens to be playing with at the time. He will scoot, roll, and flop his way over to her and just yank it right out of her hands. Not only are they fighting over toys for the very first time this week, but Miss Kate is also fighting back for the first time. She used to just fuss and pitch a fit over situations like that, but now she is trying to yank the toy back from Carson. When that fails, she maneuvers herself so she can kick at him as fast as she can. Carson laughs it off, and Kate soon find another toy and the whole toy-stealing situation starts over again.

The whole scene is cute and funny right now, but I can see how it could be much worse in the future. I am not totally sure what my role in all of this should be. Should I let them fight it out? Should I intervene and start teaching Carson about sharing?

All of this floor time with toys has greatly improved their hand-eye coordination. I’ve notice a huge improvement just this week. They can now easily hold different toys in each hand, transfer toys between hands, put toys in mouth without poking themselves in the eye/forehead/cheek/nose, and pick up a toy they drop. It may not sound like much, but it’s a big deal here.

 

Sunday in the Park

Now that our central Texas weather is finally fallish, we took the twins down to our neighborhood park. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, but the 4 PM sun was a little too bright for Mr. Carson. So, he napped. We plan on going back next weekend (during a better time of the day), so we can lay around while Mark does some fishing there. (He has been going fishing every weekend now. A rediscovered hobby I suppose and an excuse to have a break from the twins.)

I absolutely love this photo of Mark & Kate.

Miss Kate climbing on her napping brother. Can you see the geese in the background? I will bring them some bread next time.

The twins seemed to enjoy swinging, but they especially like watching the older kids swing next to them.

This is how we roll.

Destructive Carson & Another Anniversary

There has been a drastic personality change in our boy Carson! In a word, he has become WILD. Up until about a few weeks ago, I have been describing him as our sweet, shy, passive little cuddle bug. Well, for now at least, that is a thing of the past. He still has his sweet moments, but it’s usually when he is sleepy.

Here is the short list of his latest antics:

• Laying on his back kicking the living hell out of the bars of his crib. And I mean kicking hard! I swear he is going to break one soon.
• Tormenting Kate at almost every opportunity.
• Pulling on my hair, glasses, jewelry (so I’ve stopped wearing necklaces and earrings), hitting me in the face, scratching me, kicking me, pulling on Mark’s chest hair (okay now that’s kinda funny), etc.
• Destroying and removing all of his bedding.
• Pulling off his own socks, shoes and pants….and then throwing them.
• Taking off his own diaper.
• Tossing and flipping on the changing table and when I am trying to get him dressed on the floor.

But the icing on the cake is what he is doing in his car seat. He is destroying the sunshade/canopy, and has figured out how to partially flip the entire car seat (with him in it) onto it’s side! He does this head shaking thing that we call “Little Stevie” because it looks a little like Stevie Wonder, but he does it has fast as humanly possible. Eventually he will get his entire body going back and forth with his hands gripping the sides of his car seat. The entire time he is screeching in delight and laughing as loud as possible. I am helplessly watching him in the baby mirror, calling out his name in vain, and then the entire damn seat partially turn on it’s side from the force of him throwing his body weight so much. (And yes the seat is properly installed! The NICU folks supervised and approved.)

Anyway, when he flipped it he screamed something that sounded like, “weeeeeeee!” I had to pull the car over and get him re-situated. Then not more than 5 miles later, he did it again and I had to pull over once more.

So, Mr. Carson will be getting the stage 2 car seat this weekend. He has outgrown the infant carrier and is obviously cunning enough to know to destroy it too.

Carson is just all boy (excuse the gender role assignment there). I wish my dad could have met his grandson. He would have been so thrilled, and would have loved that Carson looks a lot like him as a baby.

There are moments when I am holding Carson and trying to get him down for a nap, and he looks up at me and I have a flash of my dad. The color of their eyes are similar and perhaps that’s what I am seeing. Or perhaps I am just hoping my dad can see what I see…a beautiful, active little boy baby.

Today is the 2nd anniversary of my dad’s death. He died the day after my 2nd wedding anniversary. He wasn’t perfect (but who is?), but he was my dad and I loved him. I still love and miss him.

My dad and grandfather. Do you see a little of Carson in the eyes?

My dad’s first haircut. Once again, I see Carson.