Fun in February

Pictures Pt 1

Sliding down my new playground with

Uncle Mike

Vroom Vroom!

Enjoying a sunny plus 10 degree day!

The shirt says it all

He brought his chair into the kitchen while Mommy cooked dinner and read a book

Ready for a very cold and windy Winter Walk around Henderson

Hugs for Cheeko

lol, yes, that is my bra. Embarassing but cute all at once

Clearly having the time of his life watching Mom and Dad bowl

These pictures were brought to you by my parents babysitting. Allowed me some alone time to get back into my picture taking

I was tired, it was cold, and the one morning I could get out for some sunrise pictures it was cloudy. Ugh

Carters first Valentine craft.

Tania had the glue and he pointed where he wanted the button to go.

Such a proud Mama!

Carter showing us his Valentines from his dayhome friends

Mr Helper sweeping

Another nice February day called for a wagon ride around the neighborhood

Helping me wash his toys

Hiding in his toy bin

Chatting to his friends on his Blackberry.

This kid is soooo cool.

GG putting socks on his hands

Alexander spoon feeding Carter

And finger feeding him Cheerios

I love this face. It never gets old.

He does it all the time and it is ADORABLE

My boys :)

January

Since I have left facebook, I am going to try and post pictures on here instead for everyone to see.

You better enjoy them, because this was a lot of work!

Heres what Carter was up to in January:

Bath time splashes

Blowing kisses

He emptied the toy basket in his room and dragged it into the living room to read a book in it

He was bobbing back and forth in it and I told him he was going to tip over...and guess who was right...

Sitting naked

Hes only allowed to have pasta on bath nights

goofing around with mommy

cross-eyed drinker

playing with daddys gloves

He loves to play in the pantry

daddy and carter

real men drink straight from the bottle

loves to feed himself. Food only makes it in 50%

of the time












wearing Mr Potato heads glasses. He loves to make us wear them too

Good till the last drop






































daddy was cleaning out a junk bin and found his old glasses















best seat in the house, empty pizza box
















wrestling with Alexander

















cuddles with Cheeko






















multitasking....I hope the distracted driving law is not in effect in 15 years or someone is going to have some tickets!














playing in the pillow wall daddy made to keep the bedside table free of mr. destruction





















so handsome










having a fit because he couldnt have a banana after he pigged out on supper. He actually cried in the corner of the cupboards!

I told carter to call daddy in boston

escape artist




















"Im not tired, mom, please dont make me go to bed"

15 months

Call me a liar, cuz I am posting a blog in an off month!

Carter has changed a lot this month, and started talking more, so I figured it would be worthy to do one!

At 15 months, Carter:

- is in 12 month and 18 month clothing.

- is getting taller, but still short for his age. The pants keep getting rolled up at the bottom

- has go-go gadget arms. This kid will get stuff off the kitchen table, but still requires 3 inches of his pant legs to be rolled up. So the only obvious explanation is go-go gadget arms!

- aden means again

- dis is this

- anana is banana

- can go down stairs, and loves to crawl up and down the stairs

- points to the pantry or his highchair when he wants to eat

- says uh oh (the cutest thing ever lately!)

-loves playing in the pantry. His favorite items are KD and the dog treats. He points to the dog treats then to Cheeko and then stares at me. The dog loves Carter now that he is getting a lot more dog treats these days!

- is getting his 2 I teeth (finally!)..so that brings the tooth count to 8. 6 on top, 2 bottom

- is so happy these days. I hate putting him to bed since we have so much fun goofing around after supper and playing

- is getting better at sleeping through the night. Hes still up early, but its better at night

- loves rocking out to his tunes in the truck. He head bops and kicks his feet

- wants to be on the couch all the time, but thinks its OK to run on the couch, so usually couch privledges end in tears since we always tell him to when he tries to run and jump

- understands when we tell him 'sit' or 'on your bum' whenever he tries to stand up on his toys

-is such a pig. It seems like he's eating all the time lately, so maybe its a growth spurt. The other day for breakfast he had a banana, an eggo and some of grandpas toast. I would be stuffed after that!

- loves bath time, will even run to the bathroom when he hears us fill the tub

- lifts his shirt to show us his belly

-points to his head

-loves to push things around and make truck noises

14 months old

Yesterday Carter was 14 months.

Ive decided Im going to do these posts every 2 months now, since Im back at work, and he's not drastically changing like he was month to month.

A little update:

We are all getting back into the swing of things now that Im back at work, we're back from Mexico and Carter is sort of sleeping through the night.

Carter LOVES his dayhome (I say this a lot but its true).

He usually cries when we come home since its boring at home and none of his friends are here.

He is such a little character, and I love watching him interact with his friends.

Its scary to think that in 4ish months we will start potty training and move on to a new phase in his life.

At 14 months, Carter:

- is about 22 lbs

- is wearing mostly 12-18 month clothing, but I just retired some 9 month clothing we was wearing

- has 6 teeth (worlds slooooooowest teether)

- loves to run over Cheeko with his toys

- copies everything now, from sounds to movements, he is a spongs

- has wicked hissyfits and tantrums, especially when he is told No

- can use a fork, but prefers his hand since he can get way more in his cakehole at a time

- LOVES pasta and chicken

- loves to see how things work

- occassionaly sleeps through the night. He is getting better but we have started to let him cry it out and put himself back to sleep

- is done with a soother. He started not wanting it and taking it out of his mouth and trowing it out of his crib about 2 weeks ago so we decided last week to try and take it away. So far so good, we gave it to him last night after him screaming all night but thats been it

- hates loud sounds like the vaccuum or the dog barking, or the sound of the shovel when hes outside helping shovel the driveway

- loves to look at the pictures on my camera after I take them and will sometimes kiss the screen

- loves giving kisses to anything and everyone. Makes the pucker sound now too if you say "kisses"

- points at himself. We keep saying "Carter" when he does this so he knows his name

- loves to play with the magnets on the fridge

- likes to close doors, like the fridge door, the front door and his baby gate after he climbs the stairs

- obsessed with our water cooler and keeps playing with it and spilling water everywhere

- hates the snow, just like his mommy!

- loves the stinky feet game, when he pulls off his socks and gives them to us then we sniff them and go "Ewww" and make silly faces. He loves doing it to himself too

- loves to "boing". I will pick him up under the arms and just lift him up and down as we are walking somewhere and say boing boing boing until we get to where were going

- always mouths words, no sounds comes out but hes almost whispering

- loves to lay on his back, life his feet up and smash them on the ground. He really loves this in the tub

- will rub his hands together when we say "wash your hands". He will also do this when we use a facecloth or baby wipe to clean him, he is independent and wants to do it himself

- loves to pick little pieces of dirt or garbage off the ground. Always finds the little crumbs or pieces of paper in the house and comes and gives it to me.

Working Mommy

So Ive been back to work going on 4 weeks now, and Ive had a lot of people ask me how its has been going, so I figured I would write about it.

**Side note**
For those who dont know, I work in Group Life Insurance. You know those little handbooks you get that explain your benefits to you but that you probably didnt read (Dental Insurance, Life Insurance) well I make those, and the main Contract that your Employer keeps.

First off, going back was super annoying.
When its 10am and I am sitting in the lunchroom eating my snack, with my work clothes on, dont ask me if Im back.
Of course Im back.
I didnt break in, wearing nice clothes and high heels, to eat my yogurt in a building full of people I dont know(and the rest I barely like!).
Use your head.
Also, its no coincident that over a period of 9 months I got increasingly plumper and rounder and then suddenly I was gone.
I did not get fired for getting too fat, and then they suddenly rehired me back about a year later.
Again, use your head.

Now that THATS out of the way, lets get started!

Going back was also about as hard as I thought it would be.
I cried 3 different times the 1st day. I didnt think I would miss him that much. Ive been without him overnight a few times now, so going to work was going to be easy, right?
I had no problem leaving him, I knew HE would be fine, but it was the fact that I couldnt just go pick him up, or talk to him, or kiss him that sucked.

It took DAYS to get all of my systems back up and running, and took 2 fricken weeks for me to even get a phone and another week to get my number working properly again.
Super great customer service skills!

And speaking of systems...
I was testing a new system for about 6 months before I went on Mat Leave, and during my time off the new system went into production and everyone starting using it.
Testing a system is completely different than actually functionally using it.
Found this out the hard way as well.

I went back to work really cocky.
Meaning, I thought I remembered a lot of stuff.
I also helps that I work with Mark, so he would always come home and tell me about the different updates that we were doing to this new system, so I felt like I had an inside advantage.
Long story short when I got back to work I was told I was not going to be using the new system until after our big rush time of January, and that I would be in the old system.
WOHOO! I thought.
I know that system like the back of my hand.

Well, turns out that was a lie, and I was thrown out to sink or swim.
I have a really big problem of not asking for help, and my work has a really big problem of not offering help.
I have spent DAYS going through 2364 emails (yup, thats how many emails I had received in my year off), looking through different job aides and asking questions, but I am just not retaining this information!
While I do love a challenge at my job(I hate sitting around doing nothing), i consider a challenge to be making a non swimmer swim to the end of the deep pool and back on his first try, not plopping him in the Atlantic Ocean and making him find his way back to dry land.
Toe-May-Toe.
Toe-Mah-Toe.

As well as a new system, I also have a new Manager.
When I left we had a Manager(who has since got promoted twice) and a Team Lead (aka Supervisor).
My Team Lead was awesome to talk to, got things done, and kept me running smoothly.
She went on Mat Leave about a month before I did, and decided to stay at home with her little girl (jealous!) so thats something else that has also changed.

Our new Manager came from a different area, Annuities (American RRSP's) and doesnt have an extensive Group Life Insurance back round.
This means I have to rely heavily on my coworkers who are busy doing their own work, and dont have time to be my teacher.

So for me, all of that has been a challenge...no wait....headache.


Something else that is very different for me is the "friendships".
People that were attached like Siamese Twins are not speaking, and others who talked endlessly about each other behind their backs are going to lunch together.
I swore I graduated high school waaaay back in 2002?
I think I am going to keep to myself, and not get wrapped up in the drama and potential BS.
I am not a chick who has a problem sitting by myself eating my lunch!


Outside of work has also been hectic.
On Mondays we bowl so we feed Carter supper and thats it. I sneak into his room and kiss him goodnight when we get home around 10 and its bed time.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to Step Class at the gym at suppertime.
This means I pick Carter up after work(ish) and spend about an hour or so with him at home, and by the time I get home from the gym and inhale some supper, its his bed time.
I work at 6am so most times when I see Carter in the morning hes screaming his face off cuz he is up way too early and is tired.
Lately he has been better about sleeping, so on any given Tuesday/Thursday I see him for 2 hrs.
And just cuz he's in bed doesnt mean my day ends.
Theres still lunches to pack, dishes to wash, toys to clean up, you name it!
By the time 8pm rolls around Im exhausted, my feet hurt and I just want to read a book and lights out by 930.

I feel like these 4 weeks have been so slow at work, but so fast when I get home.
It will be Christmas before we know it, then busy time hits at work.
I will be at work from darkness in the morning till darkness at night.
I'll be lucky if some days I even get to see him.

I dont know how people with 2 kids do it!
I cannot picture us having another any time soon, its so tiring!


So there you have it!
Going back sucks, but I have bills to pay and Im not the first working Mom, so I know its possible!