ICE CREAM! On Thursday, Mom and I took the boys to Brenham to take the Blue Bell Creamery tour. It was really neat to see how they make the ice cream. It was how I imagined it, but to see an active assembly line was impressive. Their ice cream sandwich machine makes 120 sandwiches a minute. The tour lasted about 30-40 minutes and at the end we got a big scoop of any kind of ice cream we wanted. Instead of a scoop, I got Cole a popsicle. It was huge. I was bummed that I wasn't allowed to take my camera along. But at the end I pulled out my phone and took a shot of the boys in their paper hats eating their treats. Cole wanted his AND Carter's. Super sweet. The boys AND the ice cream, that is.
After the tour we went across the street to the Blue Bell Aquatic Center. What a great family recreation area. They have a beach entry pool with a decent amount of shade. A Banana Split slide, floating Popsicle obstacle course, Ice Cream cone water fall. They boys loved it. This picture is of me chasing Cole in the pool, his favorite thing.
The video is of the boys (and a random girl) sliding down the sundae slide.
The entire way home Carter kept saying "I don't want to take a nap in the car OR at home." He just repeated it over and over again. He did eventually fall asleep and then came home and tried not to fall asleep again on the couch. See picture to find out if that mantra worked.
Some funny things he said this week -
While getting ready Thursday morning for the ice cream trip, Brian asked Carter if he was going to take Puppy with him (that's his snuggle puppy he sleeps with). Carter's response "No I'm not because my hands will be busy with ice cream."
While riding in the car the other day Carter, out of nowhere, tells us "I want a guys night."
Me - Ha, Carter, do you even know what a guys night is?
Carter - yes, it's when you leave and I stay with Daddy.
I then told Brian I was happy to accomodate that request at any time.
Carter is in the "why" phase. He asks at least 500 questions a day and 450 of them are "Why ..." Just so you know, the other 50 are "Can I have a popsicle." Anyhow. He'll ask "why ..." even if he already knows the answer. So this morning when I he asked where Daddy was I asked him "Where do you think he is?" His response, "In Oklahoma with his girlfriends." He meant guy friends - Brian is in OK with some old Navy buddies :)
Another why question came yesterday when he asked me why we were going to Bella's house.
Me - Bella wants to play with you
Carter - why does she want to play with me?
Me - I don't know, why do you think she wants to play with you?
Carter - because I'm fun?
Anytime I'm looking for something Carter always responds, I'll find it - I'm Superman. He doesn't have a clue who Superman is, but apparently he thinks he has a super power of finding things.
Well I'M not, but Cole is. Or so he thinks he is at least. In the last month (that I haven't been posting anything) he's really turning into such a cute little toddler. He sits up at the counter on a barstool with Carter for most meals now. He's likes to get his food on a plate and a use silverware. But man does he make a mess doing it. Fortunately I know how to mop a floor. Here he is on his first official "counter lunch".
With the summer comes sno cone season. Here is Carter on the counter with a homemade one.
With all the teeth coming in, popsicles seem to be Cole's only relief. And I'll admit, it's always a great bribe!
Here is Cole, up at the counter again, with his first whole breakfast taco. Shortly after learning how to eat one, he then learned how to dip it in queso - definitely his father's son.
Here is Carter watching the Robbie Seay Band at our church's firework display on July 4th. I posted this so you could see him doing what he loves to do - jumping. Any time he gets excited he jumps up and down like a pogo stick. He's jumping so much here, his hair is sticking straight up. He's gonna have great calf muscles.
This is at the Build A Bear Workshop. Mom took Carter there a couple weeks ago. Great idea mom. He loved it. Here he is watching his bear get stuffed. He spent at least an hour in there picking out which bear he wanted, finding clothes and accessories, and even naming him and receiving a birth certificate.
This was his favorite part though, after the stuffing you give them an air bath. Carter brushed and brushed as the air blew all the extra stuffing away.
Carter and Joey walking out of the store.
And in the car on the way home. Of course Carter had to show off his loot. I think this is when Mom was wishing she'd have made one for Cole. Though I'm glad she didn't, after 3 outfits and some accessories (including sunglasses) she'd be out even more cash.
Cole trying to put the sunglasses on.
We found a new play center close to the house that is perfect for kids under 5. Lots of imagination play. One of the sections has police and fireman outfits for dress up as well as a 5 foot fire pole. Here is a picture of him sliding down (with lots of help from me).
On Cole's 18 month "birthday", I took him to get his hair cut. When we were in Colorado I noticed that the way his hair curled in the back, would no longer curl up or under. And that he basically had a mullet. So something had to be done. I had them cut off his "humidity curls" as I call them. Here are some before shots.
Giving the stylist a high five, while actually watching the video playing in front of him. He sat perfectly still and did a wonderful job.
After we were done, he wanted back in the chair so he could finish watching his video.
We have been so busy this summer. I can't believe school starts in 4 weeks. I started the summer wondering how I was going to keep the boys entertained all summer. We aren't having that problem. One day last week Carter was tired, but refused to admit it. I told him he didn't have to take a nap, but that he did need some quiet time. So he could read his books on the floor. 30 minutes later I found he had taken a pillow off the bed and fallen asleep. I subsequently covered him up. Mother's know best.
Last Friday I took the boys to the big dog show in town. Here is Carter with a Great Dane. It was almost as tall as him. Charlie, the dog, was super sweet. He has one brown eye and one blue eye. Just precious. This is one of the few pictures I took. I made the mistake of taking a picture of a little dog during one of the agility trials. I was scolded by a judge saying that my flash photography would blind a dog. I put the camera away after that.
The boys got out some of Carter's boots. Cole had such a hard time walking in the cowboy boots. It looked like he had just gotten off a horse, rather appropriate though :)
I took some videos of Cole playing back in June but hadn't found the time to upload them. Here he is putting together a puzzle.
This is a clip of him singing "Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down!" Cole doesn't have very many words, though he can mumble the words to Ring Around the Rosie, which is cute.
And this is actually some footage I took while trying to get him to talk to me. He just babbles all the time. The word he says the most now is "Thank You." It's super cute. You give him anything and he most always says Thank You back. This is a video of babbling, I need get a video of him saying thank you - I'll work on that.
One of Carter's new favorite things to do is type on the computer. Or what he calls "Spell the Letters." I took this a few weeks ago and now he can spell it without me typing it first.
I chuckle watching this video because Carter doesn't know how to use a slip and slide. I showed him (not on video of course!) and he still couldn't figure it out.
