Happy Twenty-Ten!

New Year's resolution number 1: update this blog more frequently.


Well, it may be a losing battle, but it's good to have goals, right? Since it's been so long since my last post, this one will be good and long. In fact, I'm certain it will take multiple typing sessions for me to finally get it all done. So, here we go...

I had to go back and re-read the last post to remember where our lives left off in this cyber-soap opera. Thanksgiving weekend was full of Carter's illness. Thankfully, that finally resolved itself. Just when his intestinal problems cleared up, he got a cold on top of that. At least it wasn't severe and he seemed to get over the worst of it fairly quickly. It took him a couple weeks to finally kick the cough and only now do we feel like his sleep/wake behavior is back to normal.

As far as Carter's wellness would allow, we've been pretty busy this December. Carter got to visit Santa for the first time. He seemed a little nervous about sitting on a stranger's lap, but he sat still long enough for a photo. We also got a good photo of the three of us picking out our Christmas tree. I love the smell of Frasier firs!

Carter had an early Christmas with Grandma and Pop. As much as Carter likes playing with paper, I really thought he'd get into tearing off the wrapping of his gifts. But in the end he was more interested in the toys themselves or the boxes they came in. I think his favorite gift from that weekend was the Tonka dump truck. He pushes it around all over upstairs. Puts things in it. And he loves it when we push him around in it too.

The cold weather has really limited our time outside with Carter. I've had to get creative with indoor activities to keep him (and me) from getting bored. With Mike's holiday vacation, we've really been able to get out and about the city. We've bundled up and visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Even on a cold day, we could still walk through the tropical Climatron and some of the other historical buildings there. One night, we drove through the Way of Lights holiday light display in Illinois. The light tunnels impressed us the most. We've also taken Carter swimming at the local indoor pool, braved the shopping malls, and even visited the super-crowded Magic House (children's museum). Carter seemed to like the Magic House for the first 40 minutes or so, but after a while he grew tired of trying to find our legs among the throngs of other parents there with their kids.

Finally, we had a quite Christmas morning at our house. We made a big breakfast and opened presents. Carter really enjoys everything he got (thanks everyone!), except now our house looks like a toy store explosion. Tomorrow we go back to our routine though. I'm a little sad...it's been great having Mike home so much.

My pregnancy is moving along. I'm nearly into the last trimester now. If you haven't heard already, we found out we're having a GIRL! She's very active, and I feel kicks and nudges all the time. As I enter the final stretch, I'm really starting to feel the physical limitations of being pregnant. Ugh. I don't think I've been comfortable for a couple weeks now. There's still so much to do too! My nesting instinct seems to have kicked in this past week. I've been cleaning and organizing whenever I had a spare moment. At least some areas of our house look orderly. The new baby's room still needs a lot of work. But it's the beginning of a new year, and combine that with my nesting instinct, hopefully it will spark us to kick it in gear and get it together before the baby arrives in April.

Pictures will be up on Flickr soon!