Busy Saturday

Although thankfully we aren't enjoying (ha, ha: I use this term VERY loosely) the snow that our neighbors to the south are enjoying, it has still been rather chilly here. So we decided yesterday to head to the Children's Museum to busy ourselves in the warmth of the indoors.

As always, the water table was a hit.

Dad led Carter to the ball area to play...he LOVED it.

We wrapped up our visit with a carousel ride.

Meeting the horse with Dad.

On the horse.

The last picture is a bit deceiving. It would give you the impression that Carter enjoyed the carousel ride on horseback. Rather, he endured the carousel ride in Dad's arms. He didn't cry, but he wasn't really sure about the whole thing. After his ride, we watched the next ride, and when we started to walk away, he was reaching out like he wanted to ride again. (We decided to save ride #2 for another trip!)

Outside Fun

Yesterday, the temperature reached 61 degrees! Not all that warm, I realize, but much better than 30s & 40s. Because it was so much warmer than it has been, when Carter asked to play with bubbles, we decided to play with them outside. Shortly after we got outside, he decided that playing with his ball was far more exciting than the bubbles.

I've got my ball

Getting ready to throw it

Kicking it around the drivewayAn action shot

Swim Lessons

Over the past four weeks, Carter has been going to swim lessons at Butler. Well, at least as close to swim lessons as you get at 18 months. It was a parent-tot class so either Nick or I had to be in the water when Carter was. The good news was that even though it was a group class, Carter was the only one enrolled on our day/time, so we got lots of individual attention. Our goal was really just to try to make sure that he stayed acclimated to the water over the winter months so that we could avoid a meltdown at the pool this summer.

Overall, Carter did really well. He tended to do better on the nights when Nick got in the water with him compared to the nights when I did. By the end of the four weeks though, he had demonstrated his kicking skills, his ability to blow bubbles and "jump" in from the side (into someone's arms, of course).

One of the regular classes was cancelled because of a heavy snow fall, and we were scheduled to make it up on a Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the instructor didn't show up for the class. Lucky for us, Nick happened to teach swim lessons during the summers at the DCC, so he took on the challenge. I took pictures.

Play Date

We were so very lucky to get to have a play date with Connor and Deanna about a week ago. We started our morning two Fridays ago at Cafe Patachou and then came over to let the boys play in our newly re-vamped (and re-stocked with toys) basement!

It was so fun for us to watch our boys play together (or semi-together, which consisted of each of them wanting what the other one had!). They are only about two months apart in age, and it is so fun for Deanna and me to get to share all of the exciting things that they are learning and doing!

While the boys played, Deanna and I were able to catch up after quite a hiatus from spending good, quality time together. It was a wonderful morning and was what both Carter and I needed to kick off our weekend!

Thanks to D and Connor for a fun--much needed--morning!

My apologies

I apologize for the dramatic pause after the previous post. It was both unintentional and unavoidable. Our hard drive crashed on Saturday after I posted our news on Friday, and my fabulous husband has been channelling his inner Ge.ek Squad for the better part of a week. He successfully restored our computer to working order, and, thanks to his use of Carbon.ite for backing up our files, we haven't lost anything. Whew!

So, things here are well...and we've been pretty busy...just cold. We have had a nice little dusting of snow the past two days (I say "nice" completely in jest). I have some pictures, and thus some posts, that can share what we've been up to, but until we get them all fully restored, here are a few of Carter from last weekend when he was trying to unlock one of our interior doors with his set of keys.