absentee blogee

I have been pretty absent on the blog front lately. The mundaneness of Flagstaff is wearing on me. The same thing day in and day out doesn't give me a lot of blog material.

While Flagstaff still sucks my Bugs is still awesome. He's my little dude and I love him completely. He is such a little lover it kills me. Lately he loves to grab a book and walk over to me and plop his little butt in my lap. The process of putting his tiny baby butt in my lap is so stinking adorable. He walks over, eyes my lap, does a half turn, looks back to check his placement, then plops down. It melts my heart each and every single time.

Speaking of books he has a new favorite. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. When I give him a couple book choices he always chooses this book. Then if I try to move on to a different book, he finds the very hungry caterpillar and insists we read it again, and again, and again. It's pretty cute.

For the most part Carter is a very active little boy. But one thing that he'll almost always sit still for is reading. We read before each nap and bedtime, after he wakes up in the morning and after naps and multiple times a day. He loves to read! I love it too because he is totally content to snuggle in my lap or lay with me in the rocking chair to read. It is a great thing for him to love and I loooovvveeeeeeee the snuggle time!

Carter is also full time walking now, and actually has been for a few weeks. Ever since he learned to get himself to standing without the aid of the couch or something to balance he has been walking like crazy! He chases the dogs around, runs from me, investigates everything, climbs, etc. He is active!

The other day we went to the park with our neighbors Allison and Julia. We haven't been there since he's been full on walking. He LOVED it! It was so funny to watch the differences between Julia, who is 17 months, and Carter. Julie is petite! She doesn't even weigh 20lbs. Aside from that watching the difference between boy and girl was so funny and so stereotypical. Carter went straight for the rocks and dirt and Julia preferred to keep her hands clean and climb the stairs and swing. Julia liked to stay close to her mama, and Carter was in full explorer mode. He has his moments when he needs to be cuddled and held but for the most part he's a pretty independent dude. My favorite part was when he'd see a dog. He'd walk/run towards it, pointing, saying "daaa!!!!" which a huge smile on his face. He loves daaaas! (dogs) Aside from the nana, dadas, dogs is his first "real" word.

Watching him walk around the park in his new little sandals, exploring and happy as a clam put a huge shit grin on my face. I couldn't stop! I mean look how cute this is!

Ever since our park adventure all Carter wants to do is explore outside. Today we took a walk down the street. He picked up this huge stick and brought it with him. Again he is such a little boy with his stick and love for rocks and dirt.

Carter also loves all things nontoy. For example, hair dryer, hand mixer, Joe's winter boot.

Joe got me some flowers for my bday and mothers day and Carter loves them! If one of us is standing by the counter where the flowers are, Carter comes over and pulls on us to lift him up, then he points and the flowers with the biggest smile on his face. It's so cute. We've taken a few of the flowers and given them to him and walks around with it in his hand forever. Here he is helping me pack with a flower in his hand.

We got a new ottoman for our living room for Carter to play on. He was taking his toys over to the kitchen chairs to play with them and he'd fall or bump his head on the table, etc so we got this nice soft ottoman for him to play on. Turns out he likes to play in it just as much! Again, reading a book. Normally he knows to turn the book right side up... not this time though.

did I mention he loves to read?

Carter still loves to push things. Lately he is big into his ball popper. He got this for Christmas and always pushed it, but now he's walking and pushing it.

The love for pushing things includes the vacuum! If I pull this little vacuum out he goes crazy and gets so upset until I let him vacuum. He actually pushes it around the house, it is so funny!

One last random phone picture. Arizona has some of the best sunsets. If it was semi cloudy or especially the whispy type clouds, like in the picture below, we are guaranteed a beautiful sunset.

I promise to pull out my camera and take some real pictures soon. These crappy cell phone pics aren't really cutting it. Carter is getting his first haircut on Saturday so they'll be some pics from that I'm sure!

Carpet Colors

These are our two choices for carpet colors. Joe likes one better, I like the other better. Which do you like?

The two on the left are the same color and the two on the right are the same color in both pictures.

Color A, two samples on the left. Color B, two samples on the right.

Color A, two samples on the left. Color B, two samples on the right.

here is a pic of it on the carpet in our flagstaff house... and i must have a smudge on my camera lens. This shows the carpets shagginess

Color A on the left, color B on the right.

Mama's Little Helper

This morning I was vacuuming and Carter really wanted to help. If I vacuumed too far away from him he cried so I let him vacuum :)

oreo, walking, a favorite

Carter loves my hair dryer. He loves to push it around the house and he knows where I keep it. Some days he will book it into my bathroom, open my cupboard, pull out the hair dryer and off he goes!

Carter walks about 75% of the time now. The only thing that is keeping him from walking full time is that he hasn't figured out how to get to his feet without using something to balance. Actually I take that back, he can do it and has done it handful of times, but he must forget :)

Who knew one little oreo could be so messy!

Carter Baby

I think this kid is so cute!

disregard the date stamp

Ho cute is this?! His blankie is under his tummy.

He just woke up and was like "um.... where am I?" He started crying shortly after I took this picture. Or maybe it was because I was taking pictures of him waking up.

Carter's walking is getting so good! I think he'll walk full time once he remembers that he knows how to get to standing without using something for support. He's done it a handful of times but not lately. If he tumbles while walking, he scoots over with one knee down on the ground and the other up with his foot on the ground (like in a proposal type pose) over to a toy or couch to stand back up and then he walks again.

Gilbert

Our renters finally moved out of our Gilbert house so we headed down there Friday to check the place out and get some stuff done. We were planning to spend the night but that didn't happen. We were SO excited to be in Gilbert and be able to walk into our house and check it out. We pulled in and it looked good from the outside... but the real test was the inside. We were worried it was going to smell awful since the tenants cooked with a lot of curry. I am not a fan of the smell or taste of curry. However, we were pleasantly surprised that the house didn't smell bad at all. That's where the pleasant surprises ended unfortunately.

Our beloved house was covered in dirt, dirt, more dirt, trash, crayon, pen, pee, spills on the carpet, dust, food grime, and worst of all it was infested with roaches and beetles. I'll spare you the dozens of pictures I took of dead and living bugs. If you opened a cabinet or vent a roach or two jumped out, we saw many bugs crawling up the walls, on the floor etc. It was NASTY. I'm not sure if you remember a while back I did an AZ v MN living post and in that post I noted that there were no bugs in Gilbert. In the 2 years that we lived in the house I can honestly say that we killed maybe 4-5 bugs total. And it would be something like a little fly or maybe a spider. We had a lizard in the house once, but never a roach.

Aside from all of the bugs the house was filthy. Crayon on the walls in numerous places, lots of bright pink and orange carpet stains, bright pink something on the outside of our house, duct tape in the bedroom, nasty ceiling fans, standing water (with bugs of course) in the bathtub, etc. I won't go on and on about each and every single thing we found. I was blown away. I'm not sure how it is possible that they accumulated so much dirt and grime on everything from all the walls, doors, blinds and windows in the span of one year.

We were lucky in that we were able to find cleaners and an exterminator that were able to come out that same day. I don't know what we would have done had we not been able to find people to come out the same day. I can't imagine walking away from the house knowing the state it is in. Not at least we know it is half cleaned and the bugs are on their way to dead.

Normally I would say a post without pictures is worthless, but in this case I think a post without pictures is a gift. It was bad enough that Joe and I had to experience this grossness. We don't need to share it with others. Not to mention we brought Carter down with us. We held him all. day. long. Poor guy didn't get to stretch his legs and practice his walking - which he is doing really well with! Thankfully around 4:30 we went to pick out our new carpet and we were finally able to let Carter crawl, walk, and explore the store. He had a blast emptying my purse (we were the only people in the store), he put his face on lots of carpet samples, crawled all over the carpet samples, and practiced his walking a bunch.

The positives of the day were the cleaners, exterminator and finding carpet. We lucked out that we were able to find good people on such short notice. Oh and new locks! We've still got our work cut out for us but at least we're headed in the right direction. Joe will be in PHX again this upcoming Friday so while he cleans up the garbage they left and replaces some lights, etc. we're going to have the cleaners come back so the whole entire house will have been professionally cleaned top to bottom. Including all the base, doors and walls too. Then Joe is going to rip out all the nasty carpet and carpet pad and we're going to have the house sprayed for bugs again. A few weeks later the entire house will be painted and then get all new carpet pads and carpet.

We're thankful that we decided against hardwood floors. If we had gone with wood floors we would have already ordered them. Then we would have seen the house and thought OMG everything needs to be repainted and the carpets are nasty. I can honestly say that I would not move back into the house if we weren't putting in all new carpet and pads, professionally cleaning the whole place and painting everything. I want to move into a nice clean house that I can set Carter down on the carpet and let him explore and play. I know we're on our way to getting the house cleaned up but it might take a while longer for me to forget what we saw yesterday.

The moral of this long and gross story is to never, ever, ever, ever, no matter the circumstances, rent hour house. Especially if you plan to move back into it.

2012 is the Tara & Joe comeback year. By then we'll only have 1 house and live in it. (knock on wood that happens way before we get to 2012) We'll be like normal people! Only 1 set of utility bills, 1 house payment, etc. We're looking forward to that day!

Misc Pics

Some miscellaneous pictures from my phone.

This kid's eyes are so blue!


Got milk? Who needs toys when you've got empty milk jugs?


Green turtle, green shirt, green diaper, cute kid.



One of Carter's few cranky days... I loaded him and his blankie into the baby carrier and went for a walk. We went on the swings with Carter in the baby carrier and he was about to fall asleep when some boys started playing tag on the jungle gym. Carter was totally fascinated watching them.


I'm a big kid now! Carter is out of the high chair and using a booster seat at the table. Super cute, but also super messy!


A friend suggest we try rice cakes. Success!


he's always climbing in things


playing with his birds and bird house - his current favorite toy. He puts the red bird in, takes him out, repeat, repeat, repeat. The other birds don't get as much love.... there are 3 blue birds and 1 red bird. So does the make red is favorite color?


Carter's other favorite toy. My hair dryer. He goes into Joe and my bathroom, opens the cupboard door, pulls the hair dryer out and pushes it around the house forever!


Carter's a climber. Here is Joe's guitar case that Carter uses as a step to look out our bedroom window. When we move back to Gilbert everything is going to be strapped down and to the walls since this kid loves to explore, climb, etc.


Carter and I went to Old Navy the other day and they had this little spinny thing.... there is a little bunny with lights inside the little globe on the top. Carter LOVED it. It vibrates a bit as it spins and Carter pressed it to his cheek the whole way home.. which is about a 20+ minute drive. When I unbuckled him from his carseat, and had to take it out of his hand, he freaked! He normally doesn't care too much, but he was totally loving this little toy.


Not appreciating me taking his picture when he just woke up from a nap.


View from our daily walk.


Another view from our daily walks.


Good lord I think this kid is cute!