"You've Got Your Hands Full"

I hear it all the time. Normally I nod along chuckling in agreement, all the while thinking "no not really, they're sweet boys who are just 'all boy.'" However lately I've been beginning to see the other side of things.  Cole is one of the most affectionate toddlers ever.  He kisses and hugs without prompting, just because he wants to.  He loves his family.  He runs to the door yelling "Daddy!" everytime Brian comes home from work.  He yells and screams when we leave Mom & Dad's house, he wants to stay longer.  And he snuggles all the time.  However! He is on the go constantly.  It's amazing how independent he can be even though he's such a Momma's Boy.  He plays well on his own and loves to explore at long distances from me (or whoever is watching).   It has it's pros and cons.  I'm glad he can entertain himself and find joy in looking for excitement on his own, but he's hard to keep track of.  He is super fast, seriously - fast.   I feel bad making him ride in a stroller while Carter gets to walk.  He hates it, he wants his freedom.  But for his safety, he has to be restrained :)

Cole's language is still mostly incoherant.  I call it the Cole Dialect of English.  He understands and responds to most everything you say to him, you just can't understand him.  He says "Look at that Mama" all the time, but it isn't annunciated at all, only the family really understands him.  He is doing really well in swim classes.  He was tested over Thanksgiving when he fell into Mom & Dad's freezing cold pool.  He popped up to the surface, rolled over and got his head floating long enough for me to run over and grab him out of the pool.  He was upset, cold and scared, but did the right things to keep him safe.  Swim lessons have officially been worth the cost. 

Cole has a definite affinity for Toy Story or dinosaurs.  He carries around tiny 3" figurines of the Toy Story characters all the time.  I have to keep a couple in my car for entertain purposes and always a few in the house to play with.  He will be having a Toy Story party in January.  Carter likes TS as well, but has grown pretty fond of all things superheros.  He'll be having a  Spiderman party.  Well, it's one party but to ease my motherly guilt there will be decorations for both, two cakes and I even went to the trouble of doing dual invitations.  Hey, it's for the baby books - I won't lie :)

Carter is pretty much no longer taking naps.  Every now and then if we've had a particularly eventful day, he'll fall asleep in the car on the way home.  But then it makes for a long evening and he's difficult to put to bed.  Ever since the time change he's been a breeze to get to sleep.  He goes to his room, reads a book, plays on one of our iphones for 10-15 minutes and then willingly turns it off and rolls over and goes to sleep.  It's nice not having to battle him any longer.  He is the ultimate negotiater though.  He thinks he has a solution and answer for everything.  If you tell him he can do A or B, he'll tell you.  "I know, lets do A THEN do B.  Is that a great idea?"  It's adorable.  When you tell him it's time to turn off the tv in 5 minutes he'll bargain for 10.  I've learned to stay firm, but he'll try and work you like a used car salesman.  It's cute.  He's also very observant.  I just put over 3000 lights on my 9 foot Christmas tree and missed ONE branch. He found it and asked me why I didn't put any there.  It's hardly noticable, but not to him.  He saw it right away.  He asks about 500 questions a day, and that's not an exageration.  He wants to know how everything works and he always remembers your explanations.  I have to be careful if I start making stuff up, he'll call me on it.  Even this morning he told me I was wrong and he was right and that Taco Cabana DID have pink lemonade.  He WAS right.  He is definitely my kid, always thinking he's right :) 

Carter loves to do arts and crafts and can write his own name.  He can count to at least 40 and knows all his ABCs, both lower and upper.  He loves to sing and make up his own songs (he got that from his Dad and Grandpa, they both sing silly made up songs).   Carter is doing well at swim lessons to, I predict he'll be promoted to Swordfish soon. He only has one more skill to gain in his current Dolphin class before he moves up.   He is a very good big brother to Cole.  Yes, he likes to wrestle with him.  And steal then hide his pacifiers, but he likes to help me help Cole.  He looks out for Cole and loves to play with him.  The last year has really been fun, watching the two of them become friends and not just siblings.  Its such a good age difference.  They play well together and want to play together. 

I'm excited about this Christmas season.  Carter is at a wonderful age for Christmas time.  He helped me decorate the Christmas tree, and has his own this.  I hand painted several glass ornaments with superhero logos and Mom gave him some Santa ornaments from her tree.  That wasn't enough so he stole a few from my tree as well.  Here he is helping me decorate.

 

We've seen Santa on a couple of occasions and Cole refuses to warm up to the old guy.  Here he is at Bass Pro.  I love this picture because Carter is so perfectly posed and Cole is as red as Santa's coat.

One thing Cole does like to do it be like his big brother.  Anything Carter does, Cole wants to try.  Here is his first attempt at painting.  It was a huge mess, but still a success.  He enjoyed himself.

Carter had his last soccer game in November.  He is showing off his trophy here.  We'll be signing him up for Spring soccer for sure.  He loved it.  One of his favorite sayings is "Is that a great idea Mommy?"  Well, during his last soccer game all the kids showed up and we had to rotate a few times and he needed to sit out one quarter.  He stormed off the field and hollered, "That is NOT a great idea."

After Halloween, Mom picked up some dress up clothes on super sale.  This is a replica Top Gun outfit.  He's pretty cute.

After a trip to Barnes and Noble recently, I realized Cole really liked playing with the trains and was no longer just ripping the pieces apart.  So when we got home I set up our track from when Carter turned two.  It's a hit!

Cole can really pull of the bed head, don't you think?

One of the reasons I adore Brian is that he can be very creative when the need arrives.  I can stare a seemingly empty pantry and he can come with some concoction for lunch or breakfast.  In the picture, he made an impromptu pinata out of kite string, lunch bag and some leftover halloween candy.  Carter had a blast.

Grandmama bought the boys some matching Christmas pajamas - which are the cutest things ever.  I attempted to take some decent pictures of them for the front of our Christmas cards.  Here are a few cute ones that didn't make the cut.

Here is a video of Cole "talking" while playing with blocks.  I didn't have the energy to do any video editing, so I apologize for the length.



And another long one from Carter's Christmas Pageant at school this week.  I had to zoom in, so it's kinda shaky in spots.  Remember, these are three year olds and there is 30 of them (all 3 classes) so don't set the bar high.  Also, the first two songs they sing aren't popular Christmas songs.  So don't even try to figure out what the heck they're singing.  You will recognize "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" though.