Mid-Winter Break

The year I had Carter they started a Mid-Winter Break in February.  It is really nice...until you are in the last week of school and then think about how you could be done!

We didn't do much.  Stayed in town and just hung out.

The first weekend Niles and I went to a music festival at local brewery called Crazy Mountain.  They called it Winter Wondergrass.  Perfect name for a Bluegrass festival is the dead of winter!  It was 2 days of music.  Niles was there pretty much the whole time and I came up with our friends Beth and Dave later in the day after leaving Carter and Brynn with a sitter.  It was outside and really, really cold!  The first night I thought I was going to die of frost bite.  The second night I put more layers on than thought possible.  I was quite toasty...well as toasty as you can be standing in 20 degrees for 5 hours:)  The second night it started dumping snow.  It was very cool and also a "Why are all these people standing out in the middle of a blizzard?" moment.

I tried to capture the snow with my phone...doesn't quite give it justice, but you get the point.

 We rode his bike before it started snowing like crazy.  He mainly wanted to run into things or over things.

 He doesn't quite get that bikes aren't meant for snow, imagine the next 3 in slomo:)

Carter and Humphrey:(

Dance Party:)

Harlem Shake

My cousin Colby and his fellow 7th graders got in trouble for doing the Harlem Shake in the middle of class.  I thought it was quite funny.  Carter loves to watch people doing the Harlem Shake.  If you don't know what it is here are my favorite ones.

#1  KU basketball team.  I babysat 2 boys in this videos.  Niko is the one in the footie baby pjs in the front (Norm and Pas's oldeset) and Tyler is  somewhere I can't find him in the craziness  (Bill and Cindy's youngest).

#2 Maryland student sections when they played Duke.  You have to watch until the end to see the Harlem Shake.

#3 KU Student section

I think this might be a great April Fools joke on a fellow teacher...

Videos

I have been taking a lot of videos because he is doing so many new and funny things!

The first is a lovely musical birthday card that thankfully broke after a few days:)

The second is entertaining Carter while I folded laundry on the bed.

The third is him reading.  He is starting to read books that we have read a lot.  The first book he is looking for birthday cake.  The second is an animal kisses book. 

The last video is him riding his strider.  In the fall he had been doing a great job walking and balancing with the bike, but we had been tryign to get him to sit down.  We  haven't been out in a long, but this time he actually sat down and was "striding" on it.

Humphrey

We had to put down my classroom Guinea Pig Humphrey yesterday.  He had stopped eating and drinking and just looked awful.  We took him up to the clinic and Niles tried a couple of things, but nothing seemed to work.  I am not looking forward to having to tell my kids at school.  He was my thing.  I'm not an easy teacher, a funny teacher, I was the teacher with Humphrey:)  We've had him for 6 years.  He made the trip from Oklahoma to Colorado with us.  I named him after a Sequoya book award the year we got him.  A book about a classroom hamster called The World According to Humphrey.  Most pigs hide all the time and are not very social, but Humphrey loved to come right up to kids.  We talked a lot. I speak Guinea pig, and I am 100% not joking that I could talk to that pig!  I will miss him keeping me company at school.  I also feel really bad for Niles.  Humphrey was our first pet that Niles has had to put down himself.  Here are a few pics of "Fluffy" as Carter called him.

Old Pics

I am working on organizing the million pictures that I take.  I came across these.  I can't remember if I posted them or not, but I liked them.  Notice the mardi gras beads.  They were in a lot of pictures after the final four.

Happy Birthday Baby Carter!

RSV and Birthdays

We had to cancel Carter's Birthday party bc he got RSV:(  The doctor did a breathing treatment which helped a lot and put him on about a million inhalers and an antibiotic.




Luckily Mimi was here.  Mommy has no more sick leave left and he was sick for most of the week. Poor Mimi had to watch Thomas the Train and Carter just roaming around moaning and coughing trying to get comfortable for her whole week.  She also got more snuggles from Carter than I think Niles and I have ever got.

Grandma and Gegaw still came up, despite the canceled party. He was a little better by then, but still cranky cranky. 

He terrorized all the animals while he was home for the week

 Grandma and Gegaw brought presents.  He didn't really get the present thing at Christmas, but something happened and now he does.

 Little People Farm and train were a big hit

 We decided to still do a small birthday dinner.  Lasagna and "Bunkey" Birthday Cake!

I am a little proud of the cake.  The monkey looked slightly evil, but Carter didn't seem to care.

After all the hard work of dinner he only ate one bite. And bc I made him.  He hasn't eaten much all week.

He didn't blow out the candle.  Just reached right over and put it out with his fingers.  I've always wanted to do that...

 He seemed to like the cake. 

 Can't you tell:)

 More presents...we ended up using them as meltdown blocks.  Anytime he would start to blow up, which was pretty often for the roided up 2 year old, we would open a present!  Great habit to start.  Once again I would like to state that all bad habits start when your kids are sick.   You (I) will give him whatever he wants.

We are trying to decide if we should reschedule the party.  We already have everything!  Either way he had a great birthday celebration...and I know still the actual birthday to come!

PS  My mom and I are both as sick as can be.  Thank you Carter.

A couple of pics, a couple of videos

A little fun at the diner

Don't touch my Costco sample mommy

 This happened to another teacher in the parking lot at school...he doesn't want to talk about it

 Monkey and thumb, not sure how we are going to break that habit

 I washed him out with the flash, but I didn't want to edit this pic at all for fear of losing those eyes!

 Such a good helper, and yes he is licking the wood

 A few videos

Listen closely you can hear him saying Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Green Frog, Green Frog, and Purple cat...he can say all of these a lot clearer, but I of course wasn't filming then!

This is one futuristic phone thermometer!