Chuckles

Here's the latest fun with Carter at out house. I laid him down on my bed yesterday and started talking to him, and he just started laughing. Sorry, the angle isn't great, I had a little boy doing the filming for me.

Rolling Training Camp

Carter is trying hard to learn a new trick. He recently enrolled in a training camp to learn the fine art of rolling over. He isn't quite there yet... if it weren't for that big, heavy brain he would have it down! Training camp came complete with several instructors and one cheerleader. Here is the footage...

Carter Update

So, here's a little post dedicated to Carter. He is doing all of the classic baby things, including producing tons of slobber. Boy, can that kid drench a shirt, and not just his own! He is also really good for a smile. Anyway, here are some random pictures in no particular order.


Carter really admires and looks up to his siblings as you can see ...


Carter really enjoys grabbing his hands and holding them in front of his face like you see in the next picture. Sam was watching him the other day and said, "Mom, Carter looks like he is hatching an evil plot." He probably was... How to keep Mom up at night.

I took this picture to give Grandma an idea of how big Carter is getting. I should have put a quarter next to him for perspective :) Anyway, he is getting big, and chunky.
Sam, who has really become quite the photographer lately (I could do a whole blog post titled "Ugly Pictures of Mom as Photographed by Sam") captured this picture of Carter, bored with it all...

Anyway, there is the latest and greatest of Carter!

The Baseball Glove and the Robot

Last Christmas Spencer wanted one thing really bad - the amazing Lego Mindstorms Robot! The problem was the $260 price tag he saw every time we walked into Toys R Us. Every time we walked past he would say in his best "I'm trying really hard to not get my hopes up" plea, "I'll probably NEVER get a Lego Mindstorms, but it would be so cool....."

Funny thing though is that I actually bought one for $200 online but had decided to not bring it out for Christmas. Spencer isn't always super motivated but for some things he'll work his tail off. It was for just this sort of motivational "carrot" that I quietly kept the Mindstorms hidden. Sometime in January word got out that I (Dad) had hidden it in my closet so what to do?

It was then that I remembered back to the time when I wanted a new baseball mitt. My dad arranged for Jay and I to chisel mortar off a bunch of old bricks that he had reclaimed from an old school and was selling to a hospital (that happened to need the reclaimed bricks). We worked all summer with hammers and chisels and at the end of the summer we excitedly drove to Parks Sports and bought my first ball glove, which I still have.

So I took a lesson from good old Dad and told Spencer that he could earn the robot. He saved his birthday and Christmas money (Thanks Grandma). Exchanged Walmart and Target giftcards with mom for cash and has in the past three months made countless "Extra" job charts in order to earn enough to buy the robot.

The great debate has been defining the differences between jobs that earn cash and jobs that permit you to keep living in my home and eating my food....we agreed on a temporary arrangement, some jobs will earn money...for now. Included on that list is mowing the lawn for the first time. So now that the snow has melted and Spring has arrived Spencer pestered me two weeks ago to let him mow the lawn. He helped me clean the filter, sharpen the blade and fill it up.

Lawn Mower ready! Check!


We walked around yard checking for things that shouldn't be shot out of the lawnmower - like golfballs!!! No golfballs - Check!

I taught him how to cut straight lines, go around trees....Check!

It took two days, one for the front and one for the back but after much determined work he finished and it looked great!

and when it was all done he did what every enterprising young man would do...asked for the Check!