3 Months Old!!

Three months ago, at 9:43am I gave birth to my favorite little guy in the whole wide world! It's so hard to believe it's already been three months! I'll give you an update on what's been going on with Carson....

Physical Appearance:

I must start by saying that this little guy has a smile that could light up the world. I know every mother probably says that about their child, but really... his smile is the best.

According to my scale at home Carson weighs 13.6 lbs and he's dangerously close to being 26 inches long, or tall-however you want to think of it :) He is still what we like to call "long & lean", and were not really sure where he gets that from 'cause neither Mommy or Daddy are of the "long and lean" sorts! It's looking like were going to gave a blondie! When James was little he had the white/blonde hair, so were predicting Carson will have the same. I'm kind of hoping he gets my thick curls too :) Carson is still wearing size 1 diapers, but they are starting to get a wee bit tight. Mommy and Daddy now feel like diaper changing pros...Although, just when I think to myself, "I haven't gotten peed on in a while...", he gets me. Today was one of those days.

Sleep:
Taking a nap like a true boy....
Is Carson sleeping through the night yet? I get asked that question quite often. My answer... almost. As you all know the last month for our family has been crazy to say the least. We haven't been in one place for more than a week at a time. As soon as Carson gets in a routine we're off to somewhere else, poor guy. He typically falls asleep around 7:30 or 8ish and sleeps for an hour or so, until we wake him up for a diaper change, and a little "night cap". So, he's been sleeping from about 9ish until 4-5ish. Today he slept until 5:15! Woo Hoo! He's getting so very very close :) I feel sure that once we get settled in our new place he'll be sleeping like a baby (no pun intended). As far as naps go they are quite random. Some days he'll take a big 2-3 hour nap and some days he takes lots of little 20-30 minute naps... I guess this is normal?

Eating:
In this picture Carson is actually sleeping while Mimi and Poppy are cooking dinner, of course he woke up as soon as I put my food on the plate. That's a typical Carson move...
As of now Carson is still using the Target brand (Up & Up) Formula, thank goodness. The stuff works great for him and is wayyyy cheaper than the name brands. The boy is going to be "tight" with his money just like his daddy. He's taking anywhere between 5-6 oz. of formula at a time. This week he started using the 3-6 month, medium flow nipples. We can't really tell much difference but I'm sure Carson can!

Friends:
Of course our little man is quite the social butterfly. He's enjoyed his time in Kentucky getting to see all of his friends :) He's had a couple play dates and has done lots of visiting!

Carson is only one day older than his cousin Miles :)

Peyton loves "baby Carson"!

And of course Carson's best bud is his cousin Parker :) I'm just amazed at how good Parker is with him! He helped me feed him the other day, and he's always wanting to cover him up with blankets. He loves to play with him, and his toys. When he's riding in the back seat with him he enjoys being my "backseat babysitter". He lets me know what Carson is up to back there! They are just so cute together!

So, to wrap it all up I'm pretty sure Carson is the cutest, smartest, funniest, handsomest, most smiley 3 month old in the world....Don't you agree?

Of course you do.... How could you not after looking at that sweet face?

The Many Faces of Carson...

My little man has many faces, each one is cuter than the next! I just love him :)

(pretty sure this is my favorite)

LOL

Carson just might very well be the most smiley little boy I've EVER seen! He smiles ALL of the time :) He loves to flash that gummy grin at Mommy and Daddy, heck, the boy was flashing his smile at a random lady at a gas station in Iowa the other day. haha We've been anxiously awaiting Carson's first laugh. He's been soooo close! We've SEEN him laugh...but we hadn't HEARD him laugh. Friday night (August 20th) Granny was playing with Carson and he did it! He laughed out loud! And go figure... Mommy missed it! I was talking to James on the phone in the other room :( I tried and tried to get him to laugh again but he never would! Saturday morning Carson and I headed to Benton to visit James and his parents, while Carson was playing with James and Mimi he laughed again! This time I heard it :) Cutest thing ever! He laughed a few times while we were visiting, he thought Mimi was pretty funny!
Carson has been quite the over achiever this weekend. Not only did he LOL but he rolled over! James was rocking him back and fourth trying to show him how to roll over and when he stopped Carson just did it! He was laying on his belly and rolled right over :) I wanted to jump up and down but I had to contain myself! haha This boy is growing so fast it's crazy!

We are back at my parents house until closing (Sept. 3rd). James is back in St. Louis staying with his friends. Carson and I wont see him for 10 more days :( Carson and Mommy are going to be missing him like crazy! But, the thought of being in our big new house in 10 days makes us smile :)

Welcome to Missouri

On Monday James, Carson, and I made the big 8-9 hour drive to St. Louis! It was bittersweet leaving Minneapolis, we truly LOVED the city and LOVED the people we met there! Carson and I drove in my car, following James in his. Carson was actually really good for Mommy! He did lots of sleeping and I did lots of singing. Thank goodness nobody else was in there to hear.... Ask James, it isn't pretty!

Tuesday morning was our home inspection for the new place! Everything checked out just perfect! Whew, what a relief! I took several measurements so I can do lots of shopping while in Owensboro (Shh, don't tell James! haha) Carson started getting tired and bored of the big empty house so we decided to head on to Owensboro and leave James with the inspector. I got Carson in the car, happy and ready for the 4 hour drive to Owensboro. I pulled off our street, was in the car for all of about 3 minutes and I see some very colorful blue and red lights in my rear view mirror....Yes, you guessed it. I'm getting pulled over. Lovely. I figured I was speeding considering I had absolutely NO idea what the speed limit was. Well, the O so friendly police officer didn't fail to let me know I was going 50 in a 35. I was driving down a 4 lane road, I guess I just assumed the speed limit was 45. However, you know what they say about "assuming". Well, I'm sure you are thinking that when I explained I was about to move there from Minnesota, and that I was not familiar with the area yet that the friendly police officer would give me a warning and send me on my way. Of course not. Not only did he give me a ticket but told me I could go to court on Oct. 5th and "plead my case" and they'd probably reduce the ticket. What a nice guy. After he gives me the little pink slip and tells me I'm "free to go" (like I was arrested or something) I read over the ticket to check out the amount of the fine. It was a whopping $320! WHAT?!?! Why so much you ask? Well, not only was I driving 15 mph over the speed limit but I was doing so in a double fine zone. Nice. Thanks for sharing that with me officer Larkin. Welcome to Missouri.

For all of our future visitors: Don't speed on Birdie Hills Drive. It's a speed trap and it will cost you.

My little man

Thought I'd share a few pictures of Carson :) He's getting SO big, SO fast! We're noticing more and more little creases everyday and he is getting really good and controlling his head/neck. Hopefully in the next couple weeks he'll be able to hold it up all by himself :)

Celebrating Parker's 4th Birthday :)

Parker shared some stickers and Silly Bands with Carson :)

LOVE this picture of me and Carson! We've been using our Chico carrier and he just loves riding in there! Funny thing is... The guy can barely see over it! Peek-a-Boo!

Apparently Carson got bored with looking at himself in the mirror...

Tummy Time!

My little man is looking more and more like Daddy everyday!

Carson is still working on finding his thumb... he's getting better but if he can't find it he'll just suck on whatever he can find!

Carson LOVED Mimi and Poppy's bear rug... And for all of you that are wondering, yes, it's real!

We finally convinced Parker to hold Carson! He's going to be such a good cousin and big brother to baby Easton!

A series of unfortunate events...

In the past two days Carson and Mommy have experienced a series of unfortunate events, well just two "events" so were hoping it was just a 2 game series! haha What happened that deserved its very own blog post? A dead battery and a stubborn car seat...let me explain.

On Monday Carson and I planned on taking an afternoon trip to TJ Maxx (where we were doing our window shopping from my previous post) to get out of the house for a little bit, and look for some pillow shams for my mom. Carson started to get fussy and a little hungry so we left in a hurry. We got out to the car, and let me add that it was about 93 degrees, and it wouldn't start. Turns out the battery is dead. I kind of started to panic considering it was entirely too hot for Carson to be out in the heat. I called James in a hurry and being the wonderful hubby and daddy he is he came running! haha I took Carson to the bookstore next door and gave him a bottle (Thank goodness I brought one with me!) and we waited for James. When he got there he said, "This is what you get for going shopping!" haha He jumped my car and we were off! We went straight home and once I turned the car off I hear a clicking under the hood then called James back...turns out, the battery was dead again. So the battery is completely shot.
Now, in the meantime we have a showing on our house Monday night from 5:45-6:45. So, once James gets home he flies in, changes clothes, puts the car seat in his car, and we head out to our favorite Mexican place one last time before we leave. After dinner James went and bought me a new battery :) So now, I'm ready for more shopping!

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning while I was laying around playing with Carson I got a phone call from our realty group about scheduling two showings! Yay! One was from 2:15-3:15, and the other was from 6-7 last night. Carson and I had plans to go to IKEA one more time during the afternoon showing. At about 1:30 or so James calls to tell me that he just noticed the car seat was still in his car. FABULOUS! Instead of instantly panicking I tell him that I'll just get our other car seat (for when Carson gets bigger) and put that in my car. So, I take it out to the car and attempt at putting it in... Who knew putting in a car seat was so dang hard? Apparently there is a belt that has hooks that connect to some hook thingys that are WAYYY up under the seat. Well, my problems arose when the belt wouldn't reach from one hook to the other, and then when I couldn't get the dang things on the hooks. I can't really explain my frustration via words in a blog post but let me just say there was some sweating, screaming, and tears involved. Glad Carson was sitting happy inside playing with some toys instead of seeing a "Mommy Meltdown". I called James in a panic now, wondering how in the heck I was going to get out of the house for the showing without having a car seat! I ended up getting the thing rigged up kinda of tight so he wouldn't slide around in the car and drove to James' office so he could put the other one back in my car. I'm convinced we have a faulty car seat, but of course Daddy says he can get it in... we'll see. I'll let you know when, and if, he does. Yes, once we got the car seat in we headed to IKEA....It made both of us feel better :)

Just a funny picture of Carson I wanted to share. We took this at the hotel in St. Louis :) Pops was the prop stylist! haha

We have a house!

Yes, it's true... In a matter of 5 days we looked at a TON of houses and managed to find the perfect place for our growing family! We made an offer on the place Friday night and came to terms with the sellers yesterday :) The house is a "big" step up from our little place here...we will have TONS of space, so much that we wont even be able to fill it all up! Which means we have plenty of room to grow our party of three :) The people that lived here before must have had a thing for the color GRAY... Everything inside, and out of of this place is gray. So needless to say we have TONS of painting to do!! At least we've got a blank slate to work with! We close on September 17th...and we are just sooooooooooooo excited!

This is our favorite part of our new place! The HUGE living room with lots of windows that overlooks our backyard lined with trees :)

Carson is looking forward to having a house where he can learn to crawl, walk, talk, and eventually learn to play baseball with daddy in the backyard!

We have not sold our townhouse here in Minnesota yet so please keep your fingers crossed that it happens quickly! Until this place sells James has put us on a incredibly tight budget, which consists of buying only the necessities...no clothes, and absolutely nothing for the house. Today I went to TJ Maxx. Which was a mistake because I found lots that I wanted...

Saw this and decided it's my color inspiration for the whole house... (And yes, I will be painting something similar for wayyy less than $100)

My paint swatches for now:Really wanted to buy this chair...
And I had a fit over this... I want it for the mantle!
And I want some of these!!! Please will you buy our townhouse so I can get them?

House Hunters

The last four days have been nothing short of crazy! Well, the four days before those were crazy as well considering our whole family has been passing around a stomach virus! Seems like everyone we know has gotten it! I could write a whole post about "the bug" but after the last few days I've had that's a thing of the past.... we've moved on!

We have been in St. Louis since Sunday night, so tonight will be our 5th night at the Drury Inn, and its becoming just that..."drury". Luckily, Mom and Dad came up Monday to help Carson and I on or house hunting adventures while James was at work. And, let me just say right now...Seeing about 20 houses in 2 days, with a baby, in 100+ degree weather, would have been nearly impossible without their help! So thank you, thank you, thank you :) and, one more thank you for keeping Chloe for the next couple weeks while we try to get situated. James and I have seen so many properties that were thinking about houses ALL day...its utterly exhausting, but equally exciting! During our search we have found a few places that would accommodate Harper, Party of Three-and someday Four, a lot easier than the little 1,086 sq. ft. townhouse in Minneapolis! Now, if we can just decide on a place...sell our townhouse...and get moved in as soon as possible, life might be able to get back to normal. I love the show on HGTV, House Hunters. I only wish hunting for a house was as "glamorous" as they make it look! We've been living out of bags now for so many days I can't even keep count!

It's really hard to take care of a 2 month old in a hotel room, if you've ever done it you'll agree! It's totally a pain to wash bottles in a little hotel sink, and I'm tired of changing diapers on our makeshift changing table (a blanket and changing mat on the hotel room desk). I know Carson must be getting tired of sleeping in his pack & play and I know that James and I are tired of both having to get up during feedings, considering it's not really possible to allow the other to sleep when were all of top of each other in this little room. I'm also pretty sure Carson misses his swing which, although it's a "take and go" model, was still to big and awkward to fit in the car with all of our other crap. He will also be incredibly happy to see his Big Red mobile when we get home, but probably not nearly as happy as Mommy and Daddy are going to be to get back to our big comfy bed :)