Carson's First Trip to the Beach!

Probably by far our favorite of Carson's firsts, we are on our first family vacation! (And, no, I do NOT count the trip to China as a vacation, in case you were wondering...) After thirteen hours in the minivan -- split into two days of driving, thankfully -- we arrived for a seven-day stay in a beautiful beach-front condo! Yeah!!

Unfortunately, we arrived at our destination in the middle of a thunderstorm. Carson was WAY wound up from too many hours in his car seat and we were stuck indoors -- NOT a good combo! We unpacked, ordered pizza, then Daddy and Carson headed to the grocery to stock the refrigerator. Thankfully, after unloading the groceries, the weather started to clear up a bit. Since we weren't sure how long we would be thunderstorm-free, we decided the pool might be more trouble than it was worth, so Daddy and I took Carson on a walk. Where did we walk, you ask?

Carson, where are we headed?? Oh, the BEACH!! And, of course, his Diego "shubble" had to come along! In the words of Carson, "This is so es-siting!"
As we crossed the boardwalk to the beach, Carson got so "es-sited" about the fact that he got to be barefoot!! This picture was taken about three feet from the end of the boardwalk...
...all ready to dig in the sand with his "shubble"! Dude, there's more to see than just the sand by the boardwalk!

Carson quickly enjoyed walking barefoot in the sand but wasn't a big fan of the water touching him...at first. Once we convinced him into the water, he was HOOKED!!
He loved burying his feet in the wet sand. "I stuck in there!" was the phrase of the night.
Once he got comfortable in the water, he decided it was time to make "sand angels."
Since I always take the pictures, I turned the camera around to get a picture of me and my Little Man. He wasn't in the mood to cooperate...
...so I told him if he would take one picture, I would put the camera away. (I lied, of course, but he fell for it!) He wouldn't smile for the camera, but agreed to kiss me while Daddy took a picture:
Nothing better than kisses from my Little Man!! OK, I tried to put the camera away, but my brave little water rat decided to dig in the wet sand...and a huge wave got him good! He was FURIOUS!!
We were finally able to drag him away from the beach -- it was 10PM and we needed to get this boy to bed! He fought us, until he realized he got to play with the hose and get the sand off his feet:
This morning, we awakened to a lightning storm. (Figures, the week we decide to vacation, they are having record rain and thunderstorms down here!) Here is the view from our balcony, with a couple of crazy people in the Lazy River despite the thunderstorm...
...and poor Carson sadly watching the pool, hoping to get a turn.
Carson's favorite part of the condo is his bedroom. He gets to sleep on the top bunk of a bunkbed! Here we have Meggie helping him get in...
...and my silly kids posing for a picture.
You can tell Carson is used to being photographed with Meggie...always sticking out his silly tongue!
At about 11AM, the weather broke. We are due for more thunderstorms later today, but Daddy decided to head to the pool with Carson while they could. I stood out on the balcony and got this shot of them in the Lazy River:
Looks like they are having fun!

By the way, Meggie is here with us...but so are all her dance team friends, so we won't be seeing her that much. Her competitive dance team is performing at Nationals this week, which is the real reason for this trip -- we just made it our family vacation as well -- so she has been running around with her friends pretty much since we arrived. That's OK...I remember being a teenager and thinking my parents were pretty square and boring (Sorry, Mom and Dad!). Let's just hope she continues to stop in for food, clean laundry, and a place to sleep...at least she's checking in frequently on her new cell phone!

We're Gonna Have to Increase our Shoe Budget!

Anyone who knows Meggie would describe her as "petite." Just last month, she FINALLY reached 5 feet tall -- a major goal in her life, especially since nearly all of her friends are 5'6" or taller -- and she has never been one to outgrow clothes or shoes. In fact, for Meggie's first birthday, she got a pair of Gap Baby jean shorts...she was still wearing them in kindergarten! At Meggie's first major dance competition at the age of 5 she got a dance t-shirt that she STILL WEARS TODAY...and it STILL FITS!!

Now, we move on to the Little Man. In China in late October, we bought him his first pair of shoes -- Ultraman gym shoes. Those shoes cost us about $20 in U.S. money:Those shoes were his pride and joy! Then, in mid December, he got his first pair of AFOs (aka his Ultraman boots), which required the purchase of ANOTHER new pair of shoes, at the cost of around $25:
The shoes were actually great quality and fit well over those clunky AFOs...but the Velcro staps only lasted about 2 1/2 months! They completely lost their stick and, by March, we were off to Stride Rite to find yet ANOTHER pair of shoes at the insane price of over $75:
Sadly, Stride Rite shoes are wide -- but not wide enough for AFOs. Holes were starting to wear in the sides of the shoes after only two months. At about that same time, Courtney (Carson's physical therapist) suggested new AFOs that would provide more support for Carson's feet. So, two weeks ago, he got new AFOs -- which required, of course, new shoes! We tried Stride Rite -- no luck this time! His feet have grown from a size 8 to a size 9 in the 7 short months we've had him! The longer the AFOs, the more difficult it is to cram them into a shoe. In desperation, we headed back to The Brace Shop (where we got his first AFOs) and found shoes that laced up...thankfully, these were only $35:His new AFOs don't have Spiderman on them -- but he's OK with that. Actually, the big selling point from Courtney was that he could pick the strap color and design. He chose the red straps and the sports design -- but look where they hide the sports strap...
...inside the shoe! What a dumb design!

Carson doesn't seem to mind that his new AFOs don't have Spiderman on them. He considers himself Spiderman these days and thinks his new "boots" are Spiderman's shoes, so he's happy. These AFOs have padding under his toes and around the outside that help his feet in ways I couldn't explain if I had to. Suffice it to say, they are definitely an improvement and help him walk much straighter.

Now, could we just be finished buying shoes for a while???

Carson's Big Sister Turns 15!

Today is Meggie's 15th birthday! Carson is starting to understand the concept of birthdays and has spent all day telling everyone he sees, "Happy Burt-day!" (Close enough...)

As we prepared the house for Meggie's party, Carson wanted to know why it wasn't HIS "burt-day." Poor guy...since joining our family, he has attended countless birthday parties for family and friends. He doesn't understand why he never gets to be the Birthday Boy. Your turn is coming, Buddy, I promise!

Don't worry, Little Man...when Meggie's girlfriends arrive for dinner, you'll turn that frown upside down. After all, Princess is coming!!

To accurately tell the story of our gorgeous daughter, I feel it's best to start at the beginning. For those of you who know us, this will be a blast from the past. For those of you who only know us through this blog...enjoy a peek at where it all began!

This pic was taken as we headed to my 39-week checkup. We didn't know if the baby was a boy or girl (Daddy was hoping boy, I was praying for a girl) but I was just SURE it was time to have this huge child! (I was wrong...she was born 8 days after this picture was taken.)
Wow! I don't remember being that big or having that awful of a hairstyle!!

Eight days later -- on June 22nd, 1993 -- I had a scheduled C-section at 12 noon. (We found out on June 21st, my actual due date, that this huge baby was breech!) She entered the world at exactly 12:12 in the afternoon and weighed a whopping 8 pounds 14 ounces. Here is the first picture taken of an ecstatic Mommy and her baby girl:
Now we can fast-forward to today. Meggie has grown into a beautiful young lady, inside and out. She is sweet, creative, talented, hysterically funny...I could go on and on. Suffice it to say she truly lights up any room she enters and keeps us all laughing pretty much constantly!

Here, the Birthday Girl poses with a picture taken of her on her first birthday...
...oh, you can't see that tiny picture? Here's a close-up for you......so you can see just how adorable she was as she made a mess with her first piece of cake.

I made Meggie endure a few more pictures before putting my camera away and letting her enjoy the evening with her friends. Here's the Birthday Girl and the Little Man...
...the Birthday Girl and the Mommy...
...and the Birthday Girl and the Daddy.
I'll close this post out with a picture of Meggie and her favorite birthday gift from Mom and Dad...her first cell phone!
Happy Birthday, Meggie! Yikes...one more year and she'll be DRIVING!!!!!

This Boy is SUCH a Heartbreaker!

When we arrived home from China with Carson, Meggie's friend Sarah visited often and Carson very quickly fell in love with her. Everything was, "Sa-wah, Sa-wah, Sa-wah" for MONTHS!

Starting with the Freshman Semi-Formal back in May, Carson's eyes have been on Meggie's other friends. (You've seen the pics, they are gorgeous young ladies!) He still loved his Sa-wah, of course, but he started to notice some other pretty faces in the crowd.

Last Friday, Meggie had her friends Sarah, Kelsey, and Meg over to spend the night. Carson was entirely smitten with Meg -- but had a hard time straightening out the Meg vs. Meggie name similarity. His solution? He told Meg she was a Princess...and the name stuck. He kept telling Princess to sit by him, he kept giving her hugs...and he kept ignoring his first love, Sarah.

We decided to take the girls out to dinner before dropping them at their party, so we all piled into the minivan. Carson insisted Princess sit in the captain's chair next to his -- Meggie, Sarah and Kelsey were sent to the very back seat -- and he also insisted they hold hands the ENTIRE time! It was so funny...he was being all forceful and bossy and Princess was so sweet about it, she went along with him!

Here we have the hand holding that occurred...
...and the sadness that resulted in poor Sarah.We stopped at a Walgreen's so Daddy could run inside to grab some medicine for me and I took a picture of the happy couple...and the jilted chicks in the back seat:
Did you notice that Carson couldn't take his eyes off Princess even long enough for a picture?! And he even let her hold his SpongeBob pillow -- which no one is EVER allowed to touch...and which, ironically, he got from Sarah!

At the restaurant, he got a little bolder and pushed his way in for a smooch... ...we REALLY have to keep an eye on that boy. He is just too smooth with the ladies!!

Thanks to Meggie, Kelsey, Sarah, and Meg for letting us sit with them at the restaurant (a rare treat with teenagers)...
...we all had a great time and got some fun memories from the evening! And, look, Sarah's smiling again!

Carson Meets a Hero
(Another Chinese Restaurant Adventure)

Meggie had dance class tonight from 6:30-9:30PM, so it was just Carson, Daddy, and Mommy for dinner. We decided to have a date and let Carson choose the restaurant. What did Carson choose? You guessed it...China food!

We went to one of our local Chinese restaurants and sat down for dinner, the only people in the restaurant. Midway through the meal, Carson pointed to the front windows of the restaurant and said, "Mommy, LOOK!" I turned around to see the tallest man I've ever seen walking toward the door. He was dressed all in black with black boots and a face-covering black motorcycle helmet. Carson looked petrified! The guy slowly entered the restaurant and walked up to place his order, still with his helmet on.

Carson couldn't take his eyes off the guy at the counter. Carson stopped looking fearful and decided the guy was a "hero" -- and kept saying that over and over. When we suggested it might be Ultraman, he readily agreed! The guy then slowly removed his helmet and sat down to wait for his food to be ready.

By the time we finished up our meal, the restaurant was pretty filled with people. We cleaned up our table and headed to the door to leave. As we neared the tall guy in black, Carson marched right up to him. "You a hero!" he announced to the tall guy in black. (I was standing next to the guy and he had to be at least 6'6"!) The tall guy chuckled softly. I explained that Carson thought he looked like a Power Ranger, that's why he thought he was a hero. But Carson quickly corrected me. "You Ulta-man!" The tall guy laughed again and made some comment about Ultraman wearing silver instead of black -- but clearly he knew of Ultraman and Carson was thrilled!

Then Carson announced loudly, "You BIG!!" By now, everyone in the restaurant was listening to this interchange and laughing heartily at our brave Little Man who barely came up to this dude's knees and wasn't afraid to give him an earful! Man, I wish I had the camera with me!!

The tall guy was actually heading outside to leave as well, so we walked out with him. Carson was so happy, he was nearly skipping! He kept chatting about "hero" and "Ulta-man" and the tall guy was being so sweet about all the attention he was having thrust at him by our enthralled Little Man. As the tall guy headed to his motorcycle, helmet in hand, Carson happily waved goodbye. "Bye, Hero!" he shouted as we headed to the minivan.

This was a big day for our Little Man. After all, it's not every day you get to meet a hero...

Spiderman, Is That YOU?

Yes, folks, our silly Little Man now thinks he's Spiderman! Whenever he's walking anywhere, he'll take a couple of steps, then jump and land in this stance. While it's really cute, it certainly makes the walk into the grocery store, for example, take a LOT longer!! What a goof!!

Life has been CRAZY busy around our house the past few weeks! Now that summer's here, Meggie is babysitting Carson on Mondays (she wanted to make some extra cash this summer and he'll get a bit of a break from preschool, only going twice a week until September). I was a bit afraid she would spend her time with him playing on the computer while he sat in front of the TV. Thankfully, she's being a GREAT babysitter! When the weather cooperates, they spend the day at our neighborhood pool or playing in the yard (he LOVES our trampoline). When the weather doesn't cooperate, Meggie's using her expert babysitting skills to keep Carson occupied. Take a peek:

A rainy day means it's time for an indoor fort! Wait, what does that sign say??
Oh, THAT'S what it says! Too funny!!
Carson, do you think your fort looks like fun?
Wow, he seems a bit skeptical. Climb on in and give us your opinion...
...looks like he's decided it IS fun to have your own fort in the family room!! Plus, since he's barefoot in that last picture, it looks like Meggie isn't forcing him to wear his splints all day like Mommy does. No WONDER he loves Meggie so much!!!

Daddy's been working TONS of overtime, but still finds time to goof around with the Little Man in the evenings, taking trips to the neighborhood pool, playing on the trampoline, and even...
...becoming pirates when necessary! Arrrrggghhhh!!

I've been crazy busy trying to finish by Bachelor's degree...five more weeks!!! I have a HUGE project this quarter and it is pretty overwhelming. Thankfully, I'm finished after this one!!

Sunday was Father's Day (Happy Father's Day, honey!) but, once again, Meggie's dance schedule put a cramp in that celebration! Her dance studio scheduled their dance recital for Father's Day weekend (what WERE they thinking??), so we all went to watch her dance on Saturday evening, along with Aunt Debbie and Baby Sophia:

Our gorgeous dancer after the show...
...Aunt Debbie and the best behaved baby in the WORLD (she didn't make a peep during the show!)...
...and the dancer and her biggest fan.
Carson thoroughly LOVED the recital...Debbie and I were cracking up as he whooped it up for the dancers after every number! (He probably just enjoyed being allowed to yell inside a building without being told to use his "indoor voice"!!) He danced all the way to the minivan at the end of the show...much to Daddy's dismay!! I think the boy needs a pair of tap shoes...

After going to Church Sunday morning with our friends, Scott and Sarah, for their son Slade's Christian Dedication, we went back to their house for lunch. Afterward, Daddy and Carson spent Father's Day working out in the yard, then ended up back at the pool to wind down for the day. (Sounds like a perfect day for Daddy, doesn't it?) While the boys were bonding, Meggie danced again and I attended her recital alone.

There's much more to post, but unfortunately the pictures that go along with those stories are on Meggie's camera and she has yet to upload 'em for me. Check back in for another update!