Congratulations Merrills!!!
Hunter now has his new baby sister at home! Congratulations Merrills!!! (if you would like to see pics of Hayden you can go to the Merrills blog at http://merriller.blogspot.com/)She is beautiful! Carter really wanted Hunter to come up and play and Hunter had no objections so Hunter came over to hang out for a while. They played very nicely.

Thank you Tiffiny
Bayley and Kieley came over with Tiffiny to help me set up for Carter's party. THANK YOU Tiffiny. You helped save me so much time. Here is a picture of Bay, Kie and Carter all having a bowl of cereal. I thought the moment was too cute to pass up taking a picture.

Carter, you are not a baby anymore!
I took the walker out for Bella to use and Carter decided to try it out. (He apparantly does not remember using it when he was younger.)

Oh, Oh, Oh... Carter no longer uses a pacifier. YAY Carter. I am so proud of him. The day we got back from vacation was when I decided it was time. The first nap was a horrible experience and I almost gave in. He screamed for an hour in his crib. I went in to get him and all he said was Mommy, fier? Fier? He just kept repeating this. (He calls his pacifier FIER) I kept repeating 'Pacifiers are for babies and you are a big boy now'. I was close to giving in and giving it back to him. I tried to rationalize it with, how bad can it really be for him. He only uses it to sleep anyway. I gave up trying to give him a nap. (did not give in on the pacifier) We hung out downstairs until it was time for bed. I brought him up to bed and he cried for about a half an hour before I went up to him to take him out. He asked me one more time, Mommy, Fier? I said, pacifiers are for babies and you are a big boy now. That was the last time he asked. I don't know how he understood that he WAS a big boy and PACIFIERS are for babies but he did. Thank goodness for that. At night he would wake or sit up in his sleep feeling around for his lost pacifier. I was so afraid that this would happen after the pacifier was gone. Night is when I am my weakest. I tend to give in to just about anything so I can get some sleep. Thankfully he did not look for it once. I am so proud of him and myself for staying strong. A day later Carter did happen to come across a pacifier upstairs. Craig and I were in his room re-arranging (he can climb out of the crib, we had to reorg so he could not get out of his crib). We see him quietly coming in the room and heading to his crib. He is watching us like a hawk. He has his hand behind him. He is slowly and sneakily putting a pacifier on his pillow in his crib. When he noticed that Craig and I saw him, he gave us a huge grin and continued what he was doing. Probably hoping that we did not see. But, we did. (good thing, that could have given us a set back) I distracted him and Craig removed it. A few minutes passed and he did notice it was missing. He quietly and frantically looked everywhere for it. He never asked for it though. It was as if he knew he was not suppose to have it and he did not want us to know what it was he was looking for. He made us laugh so hard.

Toys do belong piled in the closet Mommy...
I was cleaning the upstairs and Carter's patience was shorter than the time it took to clean. He wanted to go downstairs. I told him, go pick up your toy room and then we can go down. I pointed him in the direction of the toy room. He happily ran into his toy room. A few minutes later he comes in my room. I asked if he was all done and I went into the room to check out his work. He had taken every toy off the floor and threw it in the front of the closet. They were all piled on top of each other. He even picked the toys up off the floor that belonged on the floor. I laughed and when he saw me laughing he joined in. Where do kids learn that stuff? He brightens my day everyday. Not a day goes by he does not make me laugh.