Brown Family Update

I know, I know....two months gone without a post! I have no excuses. Life just happens. :) Here is an attempt to catch you up on what we've been doing.

We spent a couple of weekends in May at Lake Martin. Carter loves floating around but isn't so sure of the water when he's just being held. We've been taking swim lessons, and he is gradually becoming more comfortable with the water. The first lesson, he kept his legs tightly wrapped around my waist! I am sure it's a bit disconcerting to experience the weightlessness and seeming lack of control that you feel when you're in water.

On May 31st, we celebrated my grandmother's 91st birthday!!! And have I mentioned that she just started working out at Curves gym??!! I am so proud of her, and I sure hope I inherited her genes!
Carter had his first haircut in May. His curls began to get out of control! He did pretty well during the process considering how squirmy he can be. Here's a "before" picture, and keep in mind that his curls are actually TAME in this photo! :) With humidity and a good nap, Carter could produce quite an afro!Though almost 17 months, Carter is still taking two naps a day. He'll often sleep an hour to 1 1/2 hours in the morning, and anywhere from 1-3 hours in the afternoon. To be honest, it would be much easier for me if he'd switch to just one nap a day. But I'll take the extra morning time while I can, especially since he still seems to need that extra shut-eye.

While he's beginning to play more with his toys, he mostly enjoys dvds right now. I have to fight him throughout the day because all he wants to do is watch Elmo. I'll admit there have been days where he probably watched it more than 3 times! (I know, bad mom! Bad mom!) But I try to keep him engaged with other games and limit his videos to morning (while I sip my coffee) and evening (while I prepare dinner).

Lovin' Elmo (or "Melmo," as he says)

"What Elmo? You want me to watch you on TV??"

In addition to playing with his favorite toys (i.e. tupperware), Carter loves playing basketball with his daddy. Scott will lower the goal outside so he can lift Carter up to it, and Carter proudly dunks the ball in! Often, as soon as Scott walks in the door from work, Carter says "Shoot! Shoot!" He is also into climbing. In fact, we're anticipating him to climb out of his crib pretty soon, as we've caught him throwing his leg over the side! He also managed to climb into his stroller (the big Graco one) the other day when he got into the garage. I was actually pretty impressed that he maneuvered his way into the seat with the cross bar there, but I also had to fight back images of him (potentially) falling backwards onto the concrete floor and hitting his head. From now on, we'll have to keep the doors locked. He's into closing and opening doors. He likes to say "Bye bye," while shutting a door. Then he'll open it back up and repeat 20-30 times.

Every day, he seems to pick up a few new words. I've been trying to write them down, and he has about 40-50 words now. (probably only discernible to us!) :)

He can repeat almost any word, so we're a bit perplexed by Carter's persistence in calling his paci a "cha cha." But hey, why crush a child's creativity?

Lately, I have witnessed a compassionate side of Carter. When a little girl in the church nursery was crying one day, he offered her his cracker. Actually, he was practically force-feeding it into her mouth! But if you know my son, you know that he NEVER gives his crackers away. :) I have also seen him offer his paci and his sippy cup to another baby if he or she is crying. I hope this sweet attitude of sharing keeps up, but knowing the nature of toddlers, I doubt it. :)
Speaking of toddlers' natures, Carter is definitely starting to throw fits. If he doesn't get what he wants, he screams, cries, and throws an all-out temper tantrum. I haven't been really sure how to handle them because I can't quite reason with him yet. But I do know it's got to stop soon...parenting books, here I come!

His favorite foods right now are bananas, sweet potatoes, chicken fingers, hot dogs, grapes, baked beans, green beans, waffles, and toast. In fact, one day, I walked into the kitchen to find him opening the cabinet door where we keep the toaster. He had already gone to the pantry, found the bread, and dragged it around to the toaster. He kept saying, "Toast, peez! (please)" He also adores ketchup. We're talking about loving it so much that he licks his plate clean. He even dips his fruit in it. :)

As for Scott and me, we're doing well. I still have what I call my "sad" days, when I suddenly realize all over again that we lost the twins. It seems that that word catches my attention everywhere I go, and my heart always skips a bit. God has given me remarkable patience as we continue to wait for my body to return to normal. (If you know me, you know I am probably the most impatient person you'll ever come across.) It's scary to think of another pregnancy, and even stranger to think that this will be my 5th pregnancy and 7th baby! And though I should only be praying for a healthy and successful pregnancy, I can't help hoping and throwing a sidenote up to God's listening ears that I'd love twins again. :)
We're still waiting on our house to sell. Lots of showings but no offers yet. Please pray it will sell soon because having the house on the market with a baby and a dog makes life very crazy! But the exciting part is that we finally bought a lot - in Altadena Park in Vestavia - and it's so fun to know that we'll eventually begin building. This is something we talked about wanting to do for several years.

We have one more piece of news (that many of you already know about), but I'll devote a whole post to it. Maybe I can get it done over the weekend.

Thanks for checking in with us!

Much love,