Wow, I haven’t posted in a while. We were in Bracebridge and Ottawa the end of July & 1st week of August. Time seemed to fly by when other people are spoiling your child. Carter had a great time, there was no lack of attention with all the grandpartens, uncles and aunt around to give him attention.
We had a surpise retirement party for Shawn’s dad. The entire family was in town and he had no idea (this is a big deal with us in Arizona, Trent in Korea, and Mike in Nova Scotia). Yes none of us slipped & gave up the surprise.
While we were back, Carter got dunked in the river, went to the beach, saw animals at the experimental far, and was the star of a few parties. He’s quite “the party guy”, as grandpa would say, and he has no trouble walking around the crowds as long as someone pays attention when he flashes them a smile. Carter didn’t like the grass, leaves, weeds or anything green at first. He did manage to get used to it & had no problem picking up leaves & walking around in the grass (with shoes on) by the end. In fact he obsessively walked up & down the grassy hill at the Willett house for hours. (By the way he can now WALK up the steep ramp at “my gym” without any assistance –it is like a slide). He also didn’t like the sand at the beach. He didn’t mind the swimming at the river or beach but was not about to stand on the bottom. Which is odd since he has seen an abundance of dirt here in Arizona. He did also impress everyone with is baby sign language, which everyone had to learn to they could figure out what he was trying to tell them. But then again he did “woof” at any 4 legged animal. He doesn’t quite get that a cat, sheep, squirrel are not a dog. I should also mention that the grandpas are training him to a “bush man”… they let him pick wood off the wood pile, put the wood in the fire pit, ride the tractor & lawn mower, and play in their trucks. After all his bush-man training he worked up quite the appetite, which (when you are being spoiled), involved more dessert than he ever had, and he also developped quite a liking for cheetos. I will admit the mini bag of cheetos did come in handy on the plane.
Yes I flew back with Carter solo. We got upgraded to 1st class for the hour flight Ottawa to Toronto — Yeah, Carter should cry while we are in line to board more often! And for the long 4 hour flight Toronto to Pheonix I did manage to book a bulk head which maintained some of my sanity. The flight was full so luckily the guy next to me had kids so he was sympathetic! Which was good since Carter managed to grab his glasses off his face in the first 5 minutes after take off. I spent the next 2 hours entertaining him with new toys, food, the window, and the pocket for the inflight magazine/barf bag. Just when I thought I was running out of things, he got tired and fell asleep until landing. He did however manage to poop during landing! Yup, it stank & I was stuck in my seat for 15min until we could get off the plane. Oh well, I cranked up the little fan thing to disperse the smell & made a poop joke + appoligized to the guy beside me. It was exhausting but we made it home.
Since being back Carter has adjusted to the lack of attention & dessert just fine. He’s learned a few more signs. He can sign for more, milk, water, all done, and sleep. His fav toys are still his cars & trucks which he likes to say “vroom” when he pushes them. He aslo likes to point alot now. Today when he finished dinner (he signed all done, so he could get out of the high chair), he got down, ran to the counter, pointed to the box of teddy grahms & signed “more”. He is still in love with the dog. Aside from “woof”, sitting & crawling on him. He now brings him his toys & puts them in his mouth, teases him with crackers to get him to chase him, and plays peek a boo with him under the coffee table.
All for now, I’ve loaded alot of pictures onto flkr.
Posted by sheelagh 
Posted by sheelagh 
Posted by sheelagh 
