Catching up...

WOW! I can't believe it's been two whole months since I updated here. I guess I've been so busy sewing that I haven't even thought about blogging! That said, I'll do some brief updates on our two peas:

Carter:

• Countdown to birthday time! He'll be a year old on April 3. What a year!
• He can walk...he just chooses not to. I guess it's because he's so good at crawling. And it's not like he's been encouraged to walk, either. I decided that he was into enough on four legs that I could stand to wait a while before he took it to the next level. But, despite my un-coaxing, Carter has learned to walk a few steps here and there. In fact, he can walk a pretty good distance if he wants to. And he's so cute when he does...hands up in the air (for balance, I assume) and a wide-open-mouth smile (for added cuteness). His favorite is to walk between people and/or immobile objects like the coffee table or couch. He'll walk back and forth as long as you cooperate. Unbelievable...it seems like yesterday that he was just a little pea in my pod!
• Loves to give wide-open-mouth kisses. And be careful...he'll try to slip you the tongue.
• Loves cords and/or remote controls. So if you're looking for a birthday gift idea, there you go.
• He goes berserk when he sees the dogs and cats. He makes this hissing noise that sounds a lot like skkkkk skkkkk when he sees them. (Hannah made the exact same noises when she was a baby). The other afternoon, we put him down on the ground and both dogs ran over to check him out. Snoopy, who is on eye level with Carter, got grabbed up by his ears and then Carter pulled Snoopy's snout into his mouth...a perfect fit. After a minor panic attack (that would be Mommy), we re-arranged Snoopy so he wasn't such an easy target for Carter-kisses.
• Likes to ride shotgun in Hannah's Barbie Jeep. He sits so still like he knows he's taking his little life into his own hands. Hannah's a good driver, but the Jeep only has 2 speeds...stop and go. And when she takes her foot off the gas, it stops on a dime...tossing poor little Carter into the front roll bar (where the windshield would be on a real Jeep). Then she takes off and slams him back into the seat. Poor guy. He needs a helmet to ride that thing. A seat belt would be nice, too. Jason suggested using bungee cords to strap him in, and I think that's a grand idea.
• He's decided that he's only going to eat what he feeds himself. That would be great if he knew how to take small mouthfulls and not jam entire dinner rolls in his little mouth. I imagine it's hard to chew with only front teeth...but somehow he manages.
• One day soon we're going to be able to sit through an entire church service. We almost made it today, thanks to a piece of chewing gum and Mommy blowing bubbles with it. But a poopy diaper threatened to clear out the auditorium, so he and I made our escape to the nursery. Only 15 more minutes and we woulda made it.

Hannah

• She's also got a birthday coming up...she'll be 4 on April 16. She's so excited about having a Dora party and going to school. Me, on the other hand, I'm having a tough time with this birthday for some reason. Three sounds like a baby, but four sounds so grown up. Where in the world has time gone? Did I enter a time warp? Do all Moms watch in disbelief as their children grow up overnight? Unbelievable.
• We were driving in the car the other day when we passed a vacant lot with a load of red dirt piled up and waiting to be spread. From the back seat, we heard, "WOW. That's a BIG ant bed! I bet those ants are big as me!" Hee hee...we're still laughing about that one.
• Another ant story...she brought it to my attention a while back that "mean ants build hills and sweet ants don't." Amazing! I'd never even thought about it that way.
• Mimi brought Pinocchio home for her the other night, and she LOVED it. She cried when Pinocchio and Gepetto were battling Monstro the whale, and she clapped when the fairy turned Pinocchio into a real boy. Yesterday she was telling us about it but couldn't remember Jiminy Cricket's name. She said, "You know...the movie with Tommy the Grasshopper!"
• She had a similar brain freeze tonight when I told her we would have pigs-in-a-blanket for supper tomorrow night. (Yes, Mimi and Pop are out of town, so I've resorted to the minimalist menu.) She thought that was hilarious. So when she tried to ask about it again, she said "we're gonna have cows-in-the-bed for supper?"
• She likes naming things...we now have "Toilet" the fish (I guess because that's where he'll go when he dies), "Leafy" the bear (her absolute favorite toy right now...she got it from the nurse at the hospital when she got her ear tubes in Feb), and "Corner and Corny" are going to be her babies when she grows up.
• She knows the capital of Arkansas is Little Rock. (We have a US state puzzle that she loves)
• Although Carter seems to really enjoy riding in the Barbie Jeep (despite the bumps on his head), Hannah tries to get away without him. She says he slows her down, which could be true...all that added weight is bound to put a strain on her little wheels.