Carter is TWO!

My cute, fiesty, smart little boy is TWO! Although, he will still forever be "Baby Carter" in my book. I was going to do a big photo dump on here of pictures of him from the last year, but I don't think I can do that just yet. I lost my phone last week and I don't fully want to realize how many pictures I didn't back up on my computer. I know if I start looking through the ones that I do have I'll notice memories that weren't saved and it's just "too soon" for that. So I will just do some pics at the end from this last week or so and hopefulllyyy do a separate post on his party and on our birthday zoo trip. Without further ado:

At 2 years old, Carter...

-Has gone #1 on the potty about 10 times and #2 once! We haven't really been initiating anything just yet. I think he sees that saying "I have to go potty" gets him out of nursery at church haha. But, when we take him, he goes! So we're not complaining.

-Says "Looooooook Mommy" and "Waaatch Mommy" when he's doing something he wants to show off

-Has been doing pretty good in his toddler bed. I got such good feedback before we made the switch so I think my expectations were too high but YIKES that was not an easy transition. He would get out of his bed at least 5-8 times a night initially and I would sometimes have to rock him to sleep. We're still not 100% there, but it's getting better. He'll also wake up about once a night in the middle of the night and try to crawl into our bed before we put him back.

-Is still a very good, healthy eater. He's good about trying almost everything we give him and loves fruits and veggies. His favorite meal is grilled chicken, green beans and blueberries. LOVE IT. Sometimes we'll have pizza for dinner and it always cracks me up when we catch ourselves saying "Carter you need to eat your pizza first before you can have your blueberries" ...

-No one reading this will understand, but the way he pronounces "beeee-d" when something is really BIG is so, so funny.

-Is now in the totally typical 2-year-old-boy "truck phase." He is obsessed with all things with wheels especially firetrucks and (daberduts) garbage trucks. For his birthday we took him and a few of his little friends to the fire station to play inside the fire engine and he had such a great time. However, garbage trucks are hands down his favorite. He freaks out whenever he sees one out and about (and wants to "chase them") and still begs to watch videos of them on Youtube all day long. We know that our garbage man comes at 10:30am and 2:00pm on Thursdays and look forward to it all day long. The 2:00pm guy is so sweet and will wave and drive by really slow so Carter can get a good look. We gave him an orange Gatorade the other day (Richard's idea) as a thank you :)

-Along those same lines, he loves to "drive" cars and also begs to do that multiple times a day. This consists of him just messing around in the drivers seat but it brings him with so much joy. He has now "driven" my car, Richard's car as well as both sets of Grandparent's cars.

-Is excellent at riding his tricycle. He wasn't super into it for the first 3 weeks or so and couldn't seem to figure it out. However, once I pushed him down a small hill with it and he was able to feel the momentum while he pedaled then he started to get pumped about it.

-Has lost his bow-leggedness. He still runs kind of funny but I think that's just because he's being a dork, not because of a physical handicap haha

-Will do basically anything for an otter pop. Just like his Dad ;)

-Can talk in 4-5 word sentences now and picks up any word after we tell it to him once. I always get comments on how well he talks and about his vocab. My favorite word that his knows is brontosaurus. We still need to work on practicing our last name :)

-Has a killer memory. It's crazy how I'll explain something to him in passing but that it totally will stick in that little brain of his and he will bring it up later.

-Loves all of his extended family so much (grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins) and it makes me happy that we live here so he can build those relationships.

-Still loves basketball and baseball and playing catch with Dad. However, he would much rather spend his time with his trucks now.

-Is still such a sweet, gentle brother. He will give Drake hugs and kisses multiple times a day without being prompted and loves to play peek-a-boo with him. There has never been an ounce of ill feelings coming from him and I am so grateful.

-Very favorite book is "We're going on a bear hunt" as well as "Thank you Nicki" which were both actually hand-me-downs from Richard's family. We read the Bear Hunt book every night before bed.

-Loves being outside and you can really tell a difference in his mood when he hasn't had outside time yet in the day. I'm the same way though so I can totally understand.

-Knows almost all of his capital letters if I ask a certain way. For example when I ask, "which one is the letter ___" he will be able to pick out every one. However, if I pick up a letter and ask what it is he would probably only get about 2/3s right. Still pretty awesome for a 2 year old though if I do say so myself!

-He also knows all of his basic rainbow colors (as well as black, brown and pink) except for the fact that he gets red confused with green sometimes. That might be a color blind thing? We'll have to keep checking.

-Can count to 15 without a problem. After 15 though he starts to get a little random. 15, 19, 13, etc...

-Still really enjoy helping me with chores. His favorite is mopping with our steam mop. It's a job he can actually do on his own too since it's just steam and no chemicals. I highly suggest it!

-Has been going through his "terrible twos" for about 6 months now. He is very very stubborn and likes to ignore us which drives us absolutely cray cray.

-Besides his "moments" he is generally a really happy kid. The other day his nursery leader made a comment that I think really describes him well. She said "he seems pretty jazzed about life in general!" Which is true. When he's happy he is so fun to be around because he is enthusiasm personified.

-We tell him only "happy boys" get to do fun things so after being put in time out/or sneaking out from naptime he will proclaim that he is a "happy boy" so he can get out of doing things he doesn't want to do. Such a little con-artist, that one.

-Is 36 inches tall (3 feet!) and 35 pounds. 92% for both.

I'm probably missing so much but I think this will suffice for now. I can't believe I have a two year old. I remember I used to ask my friends if it was weird to have a kid that could full on talk to them...and now we're here! I love you my sweet first born boy. Thanks for making me a mommy 2 years ago.