Random Pics

So I found these pics and decided to display them. The last ones are from when we were in Hershey. I thought I'd posted them, but I can't find them on the blog, so if they are repeats, sorry!
Oh yeah, can you tell I'm a proud mom? My little shrine to Carter.

Accident Prone

So today was interesting. Poor guy. We started out going to the aquarium with some friends, and poor Carter biffed it playing around. That's where he got the scrape on the left (Carter's right arm). Then later in the afternoon Carter was jumping down these really short steps, he's a great jumper, and for some reason he didn't lift up one of his legs high enough, so instead he tripped and fell on the sidewalk. OUCH! He was crying pretty bad, luckily though he only has a few little scratches on the the other elbow. And don't think that's all. . . later we were at the table and Bo was leaning back on the last two legs of his chair. He decided to put it back upright, only to put it down on my little guy's pinky toe. Carter just looked up at him all puppy eyed and shocked, then started bawling his eyes out and I actually had to hold him like a baby and rock him to get him to calm down. I don't blame him. It was funny though, because after that he wouldn't look at Bo except to glare at him. Lastly, and luckily he was too hyper to let it register, my little guy decided to jump on some pillows on the floor, only I didn't know that, and right as he was jumping, I had yanked them off the floor. It was kinda funny. The kid landed face flat on the ground. He started laughing, I think, because we were laughing soo hard. So that was Carter's day. Busy and painful. He took it well though.

So excited!

So Bo and I bought our plane tickets home to Wa. for Christmas back in July, and it wasn't till recently that I discovered that the week before we leave for home, Bo will spend studying for a test in school. With that knowledge, and the convincing of friends, I decided to see if I could change my ticket. What's the point in staying if Bo's going to be gone and busy the whole time?? (Bo said I should go too) My friends all said Southwest (who we're flying on) is really helpful, and sure enough, when I talked to them today, I only had to pay $10 dollars extra to leave a week earlier! YAY!!! (I sound like I'm doing a commercial) So now I get to go home Dec. 8! I'm sooooo excited. Haven, Teresa, and their 4 kids are coming home, along with Ivin, Christina, and their 2 girls. It's going to be a houseful of people, and my mom's going to need my help getting ready. Not to mention I can't wait for *hopeful* snow, teaching Carter all sorts of Christmas traditions and songs, and oh sooo much more! Seriously, I can't wait. I love Christmas at home. My mom does an awesome job decorating and making it feel so Christmasy. . .yes, Christmasy. The house smells of Pine tree, cinnamon, and cloves. There's good food, and it's just so relaxed. Not to mention non stop Christmas music. . .who can argue with that! And the family. I love coming home for the family. As mentioned, 2 of my brothers will be there with their families, along with my sister and my family. Not to mention, my 3 uncles and their families all live in ML too. Oh sooo fun! Okay that's enough of Christmas. Relax Cass, it's only October.
On a more current topic, I am teaching Carter to trick-or-treat. I'm making him come over to me and hold his pumpkin pail out while saying trick-or-treat (which really comes out as "dii deeee). When he does, I drop a couple candy corn in his pumpkin! It's so cute. I can't wait to take him out for the real deal. He was just too young last year to even register what was going on. Fun Fun Fun.

Brownies!

So growing up, my mom always let me lick the leftovers of the brownie batter bowl. She'd make me sit down on the floor in front of the fridge, and she would hand me the mixers and the bowl. I was in heaven!
I've found myself doing the same with Carter. It's a fond memory that I'd like to pass on to my kids. We made brownies last night, and Carter came running over, eager to lick the spatula. We sat down and went to town with the leftover batter. As you can see, Carter hasn't quite mastered the skill yet . . . he got more on his face than his mouth. Good times.

Maple Bars

Seriously, how hard is it to get a maple bar??? I noticed last year in Temple that they don't sell just your plain old maple bar. Nope. They call them longjohns or something, and they have cream in the middle. Now don't get me wrong, the creme is yummy too, but it's a little sweet, and what I really want is just the original. *sigh* I was craving one yesterday. I knew that the donut shops on the island didn't have them, so I stopped by a grocery store to see if they had one, and of course they didn't. Now at this point I would've settled for just a round donut with maple frosting, but nope, this store didn't offer those either. I was highly disappointed. I ended up getting two other donuts, but it just wasn't the same. I guess I'll just have to try and pig out on them in Washington. Does anywhere in Texas sell them??? Well that's one strike against Galveston. :)

A Fun Weekend

So this weekend was great! We actually had things to do! Most weekends we just sit around the house watching shows and trying to kill time. Not this weekend though. On Friday night we invited some friends over for pizza and pumpkin carving. It was great. I made homemade garlic chicken pizza, and they brought strawberry daiquiri's (obviously virgin). It was fun. Then we watched Surf's Up while carving the pumpkins. Carter and Ava, our friends' daughter who is 6 days younger then Carter, had fun mostly playing with the seeds and guck from the pumpkin. I had wild dreams of Carter trying to help cut and scrape, but no. Oh well, it was still fun.

The next day we went to Moody Gardens and watched an IMAX on Sea Monsters. When the lights went out in the show and they started showing a prehistoric sea monster with scary music, I started to question whether we should've brought Carter, but he loved it. He even kept his 3D glasses on the whole time! After Carter's nap in the afternoon we went and rode the ferry. It was so fun! The weather was perfect and we were even able to see dolphins! Wild dolphins! That totally made my day. The ferry ride was 20 min. each way, so the trip took around an hour. The best part was that it was free! It was really fun, a big time repeater. Sunday was Sunday, nice and peaceful. It ended a very enjoyable weekend.

Carter and Bo at Moody Gardens. This was one of the Sea Monsters in the show.

Me and Carter on the ferry. There was a real nice breeze.

You can kinda see the dolphins in the water. So fun.

swimsuits

So I love to go swimming, but I hate how I look in a swimsuit. I'm not in the best shape of my life, I haven't been for a LLLLOONNGG time. I've found all sorts of excuses not to be too, Carter being my main one, the second one being, I'm eventually going to get pregnant and my shape is going to change again, so why bother. Now I know they are bogus excuses, but they're mine all the same. So anyways, I was driving down Seawall today, as I do most everyday, and was watching all the people on the beach. I love watching people. It's fun to check out different bodies, personalities, styles, etc. So yeah, I was looking at people in their swimsuits, and it dawned on me. If they don't care what they look like in their swimsuits, why should I???? Now this might seem like a mean comment, but it's not meant to be. I just simply mean to state that I now feel better about myself. Ah, the diversity of life.

blogging

So I've had all of these ideas of blogs in the past weeks, problem is, I forget to blog them! I don't want to write too much, because it is my goal to blog each of them. Life is going good here. I've been busy socializing and keeping Carter active. Bo and I have been watching The Office. Man that is a funny show. We took a drive on Sunday and it was fun. We drove on the west end trying to find the state park. We found it, it was right by the beach and had tons of camping spots. It looked fun, only thing is, I'm used to the idea that state parks should have trees. That was wierd. Anyways, as we were driving along I was having a good time checking out the houses. They were all on stilts. Crazy crazy. I kept asking myself, why would someone live in a place where they had to have there house on stilts?? Then reality would step in and I would remember that I live on the island too. So I guess that makes me crazy. On the main part of the island, I'd say half of the houses are on stilts, or that they're designed so that the garage is on the ground floor and the house is on top. We were laughing and commenting on the fact that Carter is going to grow up thinking that houses are supposed to be built that way, and that everywhere else is wierd for having their houses on the ground. So that was one of my blogs that I had thought of. And as a random note, can I just say how much I love Halloween and this time of year???? LOVE IT! Too bad it doesn't feel too much like fall here.

Help!!

In case you can't tell from the title, I need some serious help! Carter is hitting himself! What do I do? He's been getting into things or doing stuff he knows he shouldn't, and when I tell him no or don't or stop, he hits himself! He full on starts slapping himself in the face! Yes, I'll agree, it's kinda funny, . . .okay really funny. . . but still, it has to stop! And no, I do not hit my child. Not even close. Okay, I have lightly slapped his hand a couple of times, but seriously, that's the extent. AHHHH. Do I let him keep hitting himself? Obviously I shouldn't stop telling him no, because I need to be a parent, but man is it hard trying to stop him when all he's going to do is that. We're talking Carter going up and pushing the stereo and tv buttons, me telling him not to do that because he'll break it (yes, I even explain to him, I don't DONT scream at him), and then he looks at me all butt hurt and starts slapping himself. I feel like a horrible parent and it looks like I abuse him because where else would he pick that up? But I don't, so why does he do it???
I do think he is going through this new phase and he is starting to recognize embarrassment. Sometimes if he gets caught doing something and my sister in law tells him no, he tucks his head into his shoulder or the couch, so I know he's starting to exprience new feelings. Is the hitting the only way he knows how to vent those feelings? As you can tell, I've really been trying to think this through. Once we get home (tomorrow. . .YAY) I'm hoping that it will break this new thing he's picked up. Plus once he gets home he won't have to be told no so much, because it's my house and I don't care what he touches because it's all child proof. Plus he'll have a room to go to timeout in. But still. . . I need to get this figured out, so suggestions would be great. Or if your kids have done similar things and have turned out okay that would be great to know too. He really is the sweetest little guy. He loves his baby cousin (2months old) and has never, not even ONCE, come close to hitting him. He's a kissy, huggy, smiley little guy, who loves to share and mingle and dance, so where oh where does this self abuse come from???? Is he trying to get my atttention? I thought I gave him quite a bit. My sister in law suggests that maybe he's been getting too much. really? I love my little guy and it breaks my heart that he does that. Does he know that and is he using me? So many questions. I'm just hoping he hurries and gets over it.