The Douglas House: September 2011

September 18, 2011

Dear Carson,

Let's start with the obvious...you are so loved by us all! I can't believe you are on the downhill slide to being two. I wish I could just stop the clock. 19 months old and growing everyday. Here you are in a nutshell...

You are cutting your top two canine teeth. You are also cutting a little tooth on the bottom left. That one will complete your bottom, center set of four. After those three come in, you will have fourteen...yikes!

You love to brush your teeth!

And, you got new shoes! They were a size 6.5. I couldn't believe how much you'd grown!

You and your sister love to spin these days....

3 o'clock...

12 o'clock...

9 o'clock...

And back around to the front...

Then you are so dizzy, you fall straight to the ground...

And repeat...

I'm so afraid you are going to end up in the E.R., but you do have so much fun...

The day before you turned 19 months, you came down with hand, foot, and mouth. I felt so, so sorry for you. We spent the week with your little head on my chest. I did enjoy our snuggling time though :)

The day you came down with the virus was the same day as your 18 month well baby check, so we had to postpone. So a month late for your check-up, you weighed in at 26 lbs., 2 oz. (50%), was 33.25 inches long (75%), and had a head circumference of 48.5 cm (64%). You are one growing boy! I think you actually should have weighed more, but I know you lost a few ounces the week you were so, so sick. You got two shots...the flu and hep a. You were a champ!

We've all four had the flu vaccine now, so I'm going to cross my fingers for a healthy family :)

We've got a peeker on our hands these days too.

You've managed to learn to creep up the bottom rung of the barstool and peek over the island.

You are just so cute!

You are fascinated with the stairs too. You spend your time at the park going up and down, up and down. But you are always wanting my hand when you are headed down. You are just so, so sweet!

You are working on your fork mastering skills...

Pretty good, eh?

And so proud!

The pediatrician asked how many words you had. So, your daddy and I counted the other night. When we got to over 50, we stopped. I guess you are ahead of the curve in the language department :)

You love to pray at all of our meals. If we forget, you always remind us. "Pray, pray, pray..." with your little hands folded together. You always say, "Amen" too.

You are such a blessing, you are so much fun, and we just love you!

September 15, 2011

on friday eve

i found myself at the local grocery store...again. i think i could go everyday. as soon as i walk in the door with a load, low and behold we need something else. like yesterday was motrin and today is kid's toothpaste. although, when i spotted these little beauties....

you would have thought I had just found a hundred dollar bill. you see, they are honey crisp apples, and i wait all year for them. you think i'm joking? i am not. they are crisp. they are juicy. they are tart and sweet and everything delicious rolled into one. if you've never tried one, you haven''t lived. i celebrated by chopping one and adding it to my salad. delish.

bro celebrated his friday eve by rounding up his lsu football, milk, paci and phone. no way could he be copying someone else i know...

and miss emma celebrated her friday eve with some craft time. i think this was a "welcome home" for her daddy. so sweet. if you don't celebrate "eves" in your house, you should. it's kinda fun. we do birthday eves, and friday eves and everything in between.

friday rolled around and we enjoyed a lazy weekend as a family of four.

too bad this one is blurry. love it.

both e and c are into their blankets these days.

so fun.

the weekend had to end. still not sure why that's the case. i sent rob off later that week in this...

i was laughing so hard that i had tears in my eyes. if you drive one of these, please accept my apologies. i'm sure it's a fine car, but for my hubby, it was hysterical.

you see, we drive big cars. really big cars. so, to see him in this was too funny for words. normally he's in a big pick-up truck. this resembled somewhat of a clown car. a dichotomy for sure.

it's a rental for work when he travels, so we'll leave it at that.

rob leaves for work and i spend my week like this...

they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. i am a believer.

it was hand, foot and mouth. oh my gosh. pure horror and misery for my sweet baby boy. he was just like this for the week. so, so sad.

high fever. rash. ulcers. refused to eat.

so glad it's over.

really glad it's over.

and i hope we never have it again.

i've kinda caught up on the blog, so if you wanna check out...

happy friday eve y'all!

September 12, 2011

Happy Birthday to our Emma!

Our sweet baby girl turned FIVE today....

Neither of us can believe it.

These photos are from her five year old photo shoot, but let me tell you that that shoot didn't quite go as planned. We planned the whole thing...timing of the light, outfit, daddy to keep bro, balloons from heb, the list goes on. We got to our special spot and my battery was dead. No big deal, I tried the other battery, and it was dead too. It was not my day. Then, a balloon blew away, and not just any balloon, but the yellow one. And, we all know that yellow is her favorite color. A few minutes later, we lost another one. This time it was pink. So, we loaded everything back up and went home. Once we were home, I threw the battery on the charger, and still thought that I might be able to knock this shoot out. So, we jumped back into the car and drove around the corner to a spot in our neighborhood. We started with four balloons...yellow, pink, orange, and purple. We were down to purple and orange. Neither she nor I knows where the purple one went, so that left us with orange. And would you believe the sprinklers came on in the middle of the shoot? So this is what we got. Y'all know I'm a perfectionist, but just to let y'all know...I settled that day. I settled big time, so y'all should all be proud :)

I was super pleased with one, and that's all you need, right? I just love her to pieces.

I plan to do a yearly birthday questionnaire with all of my kiddos, but I haven't gotten that far yet. So, I'll tell you what I know for sure...

She's sweet, loves reindeers and fairies (I really think it's the magic that she likes), gives the best hugs and kisses, loves hard (really, really hard), helps me whenever she can, loves her baby brother to pieces, is a daddy's girl for sure, is always thinking... and asking... and figuring, has an amazing spirit, and has been such a blessing to our family.

Her birthday party is in a few weeks, but I still wanted her real birthday to be special, so I baked these...

And she started the morning by opening her birthday hat, which was so fun to wear. She got wished a "Happy Birthday" 100 times that day.

Daddy brought in dough-nuts for our special girl...

Bro definitely approved of his breakfast...

We sang, "Happy Birthday..." And that was the start of her day.

After the gym, I loaded up the cupcakes.

And we headed to the park.

We met some of Emma's favorite friends for a birthday picnic.

And, we sang again...

And wished again...

It was a festive morning.

She opened her gift from us...

And, had been playing with her birthday fairies from Mama and Papa C. all day.

She had quite a bit to open... So, a big thank you to all of our family and friends who sent Miss Emma cards for her special day. She enjoyed it all.

I started on dinner, looked up, and found this. Yay for the littles! Turn your head one second and bam! Okay, now I sound like Emeril. Dinner was Emma's choice...burgers on the grill and...