holy bananas!

I had a realization today. I'm 19 weeks and some change pregnant. They schedule repeat c sections at 39 weeks. This means I'm half way. Let me repeat. HOLY BANANAS!!!!!!!!!!! How has this happened so fast?



I have an idea of why it has gone so fast. I have a really active little guy running around every day! We've been busy this week too. Until poor Cartboo came down with a cold. Last night he was whimpering/fussing on and off all night (so sad to listen to) and this morning he woke up with a full blown cold. We had lots of fun Monday through Wednesday though. Here are some phone pics of our week thus far.



We went to open gym at the gymnastic place right by our house. Carter loves this place! So many places to run, things to jump on - watching him jump on the trampoline is so funny! I need to bring the video camera next time we go. There are big foam pits to jump in - he finally got the courage to "jump" in on his own this past time. But by "jump" I mean ease himself in. No danger baby is that! He treats little balance beams like baby hurdles - he runs up to one, climbs over it, runs up to the next, climbs over, repeat repeat repeat. They have about 12 balance beams all lined up and Carter runs and climbs over all of them. So funny.

These older kids were building a fort. Carter was intrigued! Then he stole one of their roof decorations! But the big kids were so good with him and weren't upset a little baby was taking apart their fort.

Carter also got his 2nd haircut this week. He was way overdue. The place we went to was a kids place and had lots of fun stuff to look at and the little chairs were so dang cute! He also got a prize at the end - a little rubber ducky.

Notice Carter's new sandals in the pictures? Turns out the reason why I had such a hard time finding him some sandals that fit him properly is because he has wide and chunky feet :) I finally took him to stride rite to get him professionally measured and we forked out a chunk of change on these new, wide, sandals with totally adjustable straps on top. I'm amazed how much they charge for little baby sandals. Oh well they fit him great and he's comfy in them so it's worth it.



We also went to Barnes & Noble. This is one of our new favorite places. This time Carter made a little friend. He was sharing his trains with this little guy. Carter would run up to this little guy, squat down, look him in the face and then they'd sit and smile at each other. It was cute. Then Carter started showing off his climbing skills to his new buddy.

Danger baby was in full force the other morning. Carter was next to me and I turned around to get his sandals out of the closet and the next thing I know he's climbed up the computer desk chair and is on top of the computer desk!

Carter loves to play in bed in the morning. We have this little ledge around our bed that he stands on. Then he'll dangle with his upper body on the bed and his legs just hanging there. Goofy kid.

Carter's attachment to bee (his blankie) is so cute. Only now that he likes to drag it around the house and bring it in the car I find myself washing them non stop. Thankfully we have two! God forbid we ever loose a bee!

Last night I was seriously craving a white cherry slushy from the gas station. But being a "single" mom during the week doesn't give me the luxury of being able to run out and get whatever I want when I want. Which isn't an issue most of the time, but man last night I was cursing Joe for being so dang far away when I really wanted a slushy! Hello pregnant much? I haven't craved anything really, except for this dang slushy.



Last night wasn't a good night for Carter either. After I put him to bed and he fell asleep I heard him fussing and whimpering right after he fell asleep. This is not normal for Carter at all. He usually falls asleep really quickly and doesn't make a peep until morning. So when it's 7:30 and I hear him fussing I knew it might be a long night. Poor guy fussed on and off all night long. About once and hour I'd hear him fussing. I don't think he slept much at all. Mama didn't sleep much either because I swear I have super sonic hearing when it comes to Carter. He makes the littlest peep and I'm awake. Anyway, he woke up with a full blown cold this morning. Stuffy, runny, snotty nose. Poor guy. We took it easy today and snuggled a ton and ran to Target to pick up some stuff and more juice. Turns out Target sells icees! Not quite the gas station slushy I had been craving but close enough. Turns out Carter likes slushies too! I gave him a little sip right after we got it and he did this tentative little taste and then was signing for more. So cute!

look at his little red icee lips!

Speaking of signing I am totally a baby signing believer. I wasn't sure at first but thought why not it can't hurt, but man I am totally seeing the benefit to teaching your kid to sign. Especially a kid like Carter that is way more focused on the physical stuff and not as focused on talking. Tonight I was making dinner and he was kinda clingy so I gave him the coffee maker and pot to play with. Holy smokes I had no idea he'd think it was the coolest thing ever! He loved it. Anyway, when dinner was ready I picked him up and put him in his chair. He was so upset I took him away from the coffee maker. He was crying and signing "all done" "all done" "ALL DONE"!!!!!!! Then when I didn't get him out of his chair he got even more mad and looked at me and signed "ALL DONE" again and again! It's amazing to me that I just taught him these signs and he totally gets it.



Right now we're working on "milk" and "yes". He signed "milk" today for the first time, but I'm not sure he gets "yes" yet.



On a more mushy end note I have to say that I am the luckiest mama and wife in the world. My little guy has changed my life in the most amazing way and I have a husband who is so supportive and busts his butt for our family. Can't argue with any of that!

our monday, monday... random stuff

Our Monday, Monday started off a little different than normal. I had been coming down with a cold all weekend and woke up feeling like poo this morning (Monday). Joe was about to leave for Flagstaff, it was 4 something in the AM, and he asks if there is anything he can do for me (he knew I was feeling like poo) I said "stay home" thinking it would never happen. He leaves the bedroom and I try to go back to sleep and the next thing I know he's getting back into bed saying that he's staying home. Hurray! Joe gets up with Carter and I sleep, sleep, sleep. I don't think I've slept so much since before I was pregnant. Especially considering that I went to bed at 7:30pm on Sunday night because I wasn't feeling too hot. I finally got out of bed around 10am feeling a good deal better. During that time Joe and Carter went to play with the trains as B&N and stopped to get me more juice.



The rest of our Monday, Monday consisted of me running around after Carter. As per the usual :) But I tried to refrain from kissing him 10 million times as I didn't want him to get sick. This is no small feat when you've got a kid as cute as Cart with cheeks that scream "KISS ME". Anyway, I got some pictures and some video.

Baby loves to empty my bathroom cabinet and drawers. Mommy dog likes to supervise. Blankie (called "bee" by Carter) is never far away.





I found this in my drawer later.

I was sitting on the bed watching Carter have fun emptying my drawer when he came up to me, pulled my legs down so my feet were touching the ground, pulled my pants to get me stand up, then shimmied his body in between my legs and the bed and pushed me where he wanted me to go. I love this!

a new little hiding spot! Carter loves hiding spots that are just his size.





finally took a picture of baby bump #2. 18 weeks

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Carter likes to pretend he's a puppy and will lay in the dogs beds. I didn't have a camera close by so I took video instead.

Tonight at dinner Carter really wanted to drink from my water cup so I plopped Carter in his booster and gave him my water cup. Look how well he did! He was so proud of himself too which makes it even cuter.

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In other news Carter said "elmo" for the first time tonight. He has an elmo bathtub spout protector thing and he pointed to it and said "emo" aka "elmo". It was so cute. Then tonight we were reading a sesame street book and I said "Carter, can you point to Elmo?" And he points his little tiny finger right on Elmo. I haven't really asked him to point to things lately because he wasn't really doing it. But seeing he knew Elmo I decided to see who else he knows. He knows Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. He also knows where the dog is.



Animal sounds. Carter is getting really good at his animal sounds. He does fish, horse, cow, dog, dino.



Carter is no longer being a picky eater (knock on wood). Ever since I started giving him utensils to eat with he's done so much better. I'm sure there are other factors too, but seriously when I gave the kid a fork he started eating. His new current favorites are chicken nuggets with sweet n sour sauce, mac n cheese (kid after my own heart), and pizza. He loves himself some pizza. The other night I went out with the moms group and Carter and Joe had pizza. Joe said that Carter kept signing "more", "more", "more" and ate an entire piece of pizza himself!



Speaking of signing this kid is turning into a little communicator right before my very eyes. Tonight at dinner he was looking like he was all done, so I signed "all done" while asking "carter are you all done?" He answered by shaking his head no and signing for "more". Amazing! I need to teach him more signs ASAP! He seems to love that he can communicate with me and that I understand what he's telling me. And I love it too! Plus he's such a little sponge. He learned "more" & "all done" really quickly.



Oh and this weekend we went to the water park. Carter wasn't as active as normal so we decided to check out the lazy river. Hello mama heaven! I got in the tube and put Carter in my lap and we cruised around the lazy river together and he took it all in. When he heard some music he liked he did a little bee bop in the tube. Love times like that where he's totally content to sit and snuggle on my lap with me. I may have kissed his cheek an inappropriate amount.



That's all for my Monday, Monday random Carter pics, videos, and facts. Gotta get to bed and make sure to kick this cold.

phone photos

Watching the guys install the pool fence.

Playing with the train table at Barnes & Nobel. Carter loves this train table! I'm stalking craigslist to find one for him. The Thomas the Train tables are holy smokes expensive!

Carter's other favorite part of Barnes & Nobel is the kids reading area where they have steps, things to hide behind and these cute little kid beach chairs.

Kody has been a "mommy dog" lately. First thing in the morning she runs to Carter's room to see what he's doing, she wants to supervise bath time, etc. She's been really into Carter lately and is so so good with him. She still doesn't sit still to let him pet her but she loves to kiss him and doesn't mind his loud ways or when he runs by her, accidentally steps on her tail, etc. She's a good mommy dog.

2 fun updates!

2 fun and random updates from the Troness casa.



#1. Carter no longer puts on a mad face, complete with scrunched up eye brows, and yells when the dogs bark. While watching him get a mad, scrunchy face, and yell at the dogs was crazy funny (on the inside) it really made me realize that I obviously get mad and yell at the dog way too much. So I made a conscious effort not to yell at the dogs when they bark but to say "shhh" instead. Now when the dogs bark Carter goes "shhh" which isn't quite as cute and funny as the mad face complete with scrunched up eye brows, but it makes me feel better that he's copying the "sshh" instead of the yelling.



#2. We're going to find out if baby numero dos is a boy or a girl on September 9th. Well, I should say we want to find out if it's a boy or a girl on September 9th. Hopefully baby will cooperate! While I was previously dead set on not finding out, I woke up one day and realized I had to know. Joe was on the fence about not finding out, but was going along with with it for me. Then I called him up one morning and said "I have to know!" It's a variety of reasons including bonding with this baby, having the fun of finding cute bedding and planning the room and such (love the planning and researching stuff!), figuring out a name (we're having a TOUGH time with this), being able to tell Carter little brother or little sister (not that it matters now, but once he's older it will/might), and when it comes down to it, the baby's gender is a surprise either way. Either you're surprised at the 20 week ultrasound or you're surprised at 40ish weeks on delivery day. I'm excited to be excited and nervous all over again for the big anatomy ultra sound. I remember being so excited and so nervous when I was pregnant with Carter. It was so fun! Can't wait to do it again! Now that we've decided to find out, September 9th seems so far away!

our weekend

This past weekend was one of the most fun weekends we've had in a while. I love living in Gilbert. Saturday afternoon Joe was doing yard work and Carter had just gotten up from a nap and I stepped outside and yelled to Joe "wrap it up! let's go to the water park!" 15 minutes later we were on our way to one of Carter's favorite places. And the water park didn't disappoint. I got my 10ish minutes of clingy snugly Carter (love!) and after that he was full speed ahead playing and running and having a blast. I wish I had the guts to bring the Nikon to the water park. I'm sure the pictures would be awesome, but I'm scared to ruin the Nikon so I settled for the p&s. Add to my wish list a zoom lens and we'd be all good! Photography sure is an expensive hobby.



I love this little set of pictures. Carter saw me crouching down taking his picture and he smiled all huge and walked as fast as his little body would go in the water over to me. Love him to pieces!

Carter loves the splash pad area of the water park. They have lots of little fountains and water to run through. While looking at these pics I just noticed that Carter is the only kid wearing a hat and water shoes. Which I think is crazy! The pool decking is insane hot on my feet, I can only imagine what it would feel like on baby feet. And I want him to be able to explore so the water shoes are perfect for that. Plus a little extra traction. Then the hat seems like a "duh" to me. We live in Arizona and have intense full sun all the time. We have to protect that delicate baby skin!

Sunday we went to the aquarium. Carter loved loved loved every second of the aquarium. He was able to run and explore everything as he pleased and he loved the fish! The only part he didn't like was when you walk through a glass tunnel with the fish and such totally surrounding you. He wasn't so sure of walking in there and wanted to be held.



We made it just in time for the stingray feeding. As soon as we got there we took Carter out of the stroller and he ran right up to the tank, pressed his face against it and was laughing, smiling, and ooohhing and ahhing non stop. It was so funny and cute to watch him.



*Warning, the pictures from the aquarium are terrible. It was so dark, both my p&s and the nikon had a really tough time. Like I said before a camera with higher ISO capabilities is on my wish list... hint hint Joe Troness!*

waiting to get in the aquarium... not so sure about what's going on

stingray tank

There were these little areas where you could crawl under the tanks and then come up in a bubble in the middle of the tank. Here's Carter totally surrounded by a tank! He was loving it!

The aquarium was small but very kid friendly. We let Carter explore everything on his own time and where he wanted to go. I think that definitely added to the fun for him.

Carter could have sat at this tank forever. This was the shark tank.. although you don't see any sharks in the pictures. Carter was so fascinated. He was making fishy noises and waving and saying bye to the fish! So stinking cute!

here's the fish noise face! (fish make kissy noises)

monday, monday

Happy Monday morning!



Love, your little system administrator

immitation.. the most sincere form of flattery

I say this about every age, but man is 16 months my favorite age so far! He's so interactive, his personality is blossoming, he's funny, snugly, opinionated, smart, fearless, and most definitely cute. He has really been showing off the smart side lately. I started signing to Carter a way long time ago. Then at some point I just stopped. I'm not sure why I just did. I hadn't signed to him for many months. At dinner time one day Carter was telling us he was done with dinner by shoving all his food off the table and onto the floor. I had this brilliant idea to teach him the sign for "all done". It's a similar motion to pushing all your food to the side so I figured why not. For the past month or so I've been signing "all done" to him at the end of meals... so about 2 times a day since he eats breakfast on the go. I sign and say all done and then he gets to get right out of his booster seat and leave the table. The other week we were eating lunch and I asked Carter if he was all done and did the sign. He looked at me a signed all done! Obviously I was super excited and he knew it. He had this huge proud smile on his face and signed it again! Since then he signs all done at the end of most meals.



Since Carter started to sign all done I figured I'd keep going and add another sign so I started signing "more" to him. The sign for more is like putting your hand in a semi flatted 0 shape then bringing your hands together, palms facing inward, and touching the tips of your fingers.... if that makes since. You can google it and come up with a video really easily. Tonight at dinner I was asking Carter if he wanted more lasagna and he signed more! Again, I was super excited and he had the same huge proud grin on his face. It's so cute and funny to watch him. He knows what he's doing is awesome and he totally loves how excited I get. It's totally amazing to watch him learn and show off what he's learning. Amazing!



Here's a video of him signing "more" and "all done"

Carter's learning is also really showing in his vocabulary. He is definitely imitating what we say more and more. The other night we were reading a book about baby Elmo and Carter said "baa...bies". He also is imitating in actions a lot as well. For example I was dusting and he wanted to give it a try too. Then he starting saying "dust" also. Honestly it is so amazing to be home with him and watch him learn these things and do and say new things for the first time. Here he is dusting and saying "dust"

The imitating also extends to what we're wearing. Right now he really likes sun glasses. I had my sun glasses on top of my head and Carter took them off and put them on himself. Normally he will rip them right off again but this time he thought it was so cool to wear them! He had this big goofy grin on his face and he couldn't stop laughing!

I love this picture for 2 reasons, obviously Carter, but also look at Joe's expression. That's Joe's "omg I love this kid" expression. The expression is all in his mouth.

on my wish list is a camera with higher ISO capabilities