May- June 2008

After being back from Naples for a few weeks, we went to Chicago to visit Todd and Courtney, my brother and his wife...are you confused yet? Carter had never been before and we wanted him to enjoy his aunt and uncle and get to experience a big city. I'm not sure what was wrong with Carter, but he was in a pretty rotten mood at times while we were there. But, we went ahead with our plans, all of which revolved around him. We went to the Shedd's Aquarium, which I think he would have loved if he was a little older and I didn't have to keep him in the stroller to keep track of him. It was very crowded that day, too. We also went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. He liked that better because we were outside and he LOVES monkeys. He was eye to eye with a big ape like the one in The Lion King. He sang him the "do the monkey" song from The Wiggles. He also rode the Carousel. He wasn't sure of it at first, but once it got going he shouted "weeeeeeeee" the whole time. It was so great to go to Chicago and see Todd and Courtney before their own little man came into our world.

June is Birthday Month for Carter. If you know me very well, you know I am a planner. Fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants is not in my vocabulary. I mean, I am already planning 2009 for pete's sake. So, I started planning Carter's 2nd birthday pretty much right after his 1st. I had wanted to use the City Park for his 1st but it was unavailable so we used another park in town. It was nice but I had my sights set on that Gazebo and Shelter in the City Park. Plus, we take Carter there all the time since we live downtown and he absolutely loves the "sings" and "sides". Even the drawbridge is a "side" in Carter's world. So, I called back in March to book it. Wouldn't you know it it was already booked for Saturday afternoon, so we went with Friday evening, June 6, the day after Carter's real birthday.

Carter was REALLY into the Wiggles back in the spring (he still is...yea) so of course a Wiggly Party was in store. Luckily the party stores in Lexington still had Wiggles decor so that's what we went with. Along with the Wiggles gear, we used red, blue, yellow and purple (duh, the Wiggles colors) for the tables and balloons. I ordered a Wiggles Cake kit and had the store make a huge cake for me. Although I could have done this myself, they make the best cakes so it was one less thing I had to worry about. "CAKE" is one of Carter's favorite words so that was a BIG hit with him.

We put the presents by the gazebo and let the kids play and eat. We had pizza, chips and drinks. Last year we grilled out and with that many people, we didn't get to enjoy it as much. So we went the easy route this year and actually spent time with the friends and family that came to celebrate our precious, little boy's second birthday.

Carter had a ball chasing the older kids and he sat for a long time on the tricycle his great-mimmie gave him. All of the kids played with the toys he got. The 3 riding toys were huge hits!
We ended the party busting a Wiggles pinata and the candy just FLOWED out of it. All of the kids definitely had a sugar high after our party.

I just cannot believe my little boy turned 2 this year. I honestly remember every bit of my pregnancy, which seems like just yesterday. To us, our pregnancy was a miracle. We were told it would take lots of time and medicine for us to have a child. Then one October morning, I had a feeling I should take "just one more test". We both doubted it would read positive, as it never had before. But we learned that morning not to doubt the power and mercy of God. He had given us a gift, trusted us with a precious life. Our prayer is that we raise Carter in a way that is pleasing to God and in a way that shows people how blessed we are to have him. We want our blessing to shine a light back onto God, for He is worthy of all our praise and worship.

These first two years of Carter's life have been amazing. To watch him grow and learn and explore and discover and laugh has taught me the true meaning of joy. I just can't wait to see what God has in store for us and for Carter.