Back to School

Carter is generally up with the chickens! When I woke him up this morning he said, "Can't I sleep for a few more minutes?" 

We made a special pilgrimage to Toys R Us for an Angry Birds backpack. Once we were there Carter wanted a SkyLanders backpack. I that was the first time I have ever totally vetoed one of Carter's choices. I hear enough whining about wanting the SkyLanders game. I felt like having a backpack with SkyLanders on it would only making the whining about wanting SkyLanders worse. We compromised on a Mario backpack and now the whining about the Wii has intensified! 

 Taking photos with funny faces is the only way that Carter will agree to photos.

 Reading at "the pond" before school begins.

When we arrived at school Carter went straight for the trains. He teacher very sweetly told him he needed to go sit in "the pond" and read until class was ready to begin. I wanted to tell the teacher to leave my baby alone and let him play with whatever he wanted! Good thing she is nice!

 Mrs. Tracy teaches the boys what to do when they "tee-tee" on the toilet seat.

 The first book was Don't Eat the Teacher. I stood by the classroom sink and cried because that I was leaving my baby with the public school system, because he is six, because he can function without me, and because him growing up sort of sucks!

Singing the "Good Morning" song. This was super sweet.

Rebecca, Ian's mom, is experienced at this first day of school stuff. Her oldest is in 7th grade and her youngest is AJ's age. She was kind to me and offered her shoulder for me to cry on. I stayed till 8:30 when the class left for Library. I must have wondered how Carter's day was going 1 million times before it was time to pick him up. I got to the school 20 minutes early so I could be the first in line to pick up kids. However, there were at least 40 cars in front of me!

Mrs. Tracy also told Carter he had to tuck in his shirt to stay with her at school. He was pretty willing, but it was funny to see him with it tucked in. We just aren't a tucked in kind of family. 

Carter doesn't tell us much about his day. He did say he painted, colored, went to French class, read to himself during DEAR time (drop everything and read), and stayed OUT of trouble! Monday is the first day with all 20 of the kids. The school is having a boo-hoo breakfast. I'm crying just writing this so I'm sure I will be crying again Monday.

Cheesy Staycation

Brunch on the patio at the "Chocolate Bread place" aka Mimi's Cafe. 

AJ is says "cheese" anytime he sees a camera.

We have had this sandbox for a few years. Leave it to the little adventure to kick off his shoes and hop in.

Our last trip on stay-cation was Holiday World. AJ stayed with Nana. Carter never looked up from the iPad the entire trip in the car. Not even when the car stopped. We were at the entrance gate before he knew where we were. We had a blast riding water slides and water rides. Our favorite was the "toliet bowl" or the Bakuli. I was trying to help Carter get on the swings the restrain bar feel from above, conked him the head and he was DONE for the day. I did convince him to ride the scrambler on the way out of the park. I was SO sick afterward. By lunch time on Friday I was so sick I was sure I was wasn't going to make it. Mark gave me some medicine and I was good as new in 24 hours.

Stay cation was fun...now back to school.

Home RUN KING!

Friday was a resting vacation day. We took the boys to "Firemans foam" at Moss Wright Park. Carter saw the kids all covered in bubbles and decided he was not going to particiate. Mark and I weren't dressed to escort AJ into the bubble madness so our trip to the park was short lived.

Next we headed to Kroger for a quick produce run. We came back home for hot dogs from the grill and naps for AJ & mommy. I taught Carter how to play go-fish and we played with the slip and slide that evening. Both kids were up past 10 p.m. Mark and I often muse about why we have children that just don't seem to require as much sleep as we want them to "need." Carter ended up sleeping with me. Mark was in Carter's bed. AJ lost his pillow privlages because he kept messing with the pillow instead of going to sleep.

Saturday was a SUPER exciting day. Carter had his last ball game of the summer season. Papa, Grandma, Papa Jerry & Nana Ruby were all at the game to cheer Carter on.

Both Mark & I went over to encourage Carter before his last at-bat. CW hit two fouls then smacked the ball past third for a HOME RUN! It is safe to say that everyone knew I was his mama when he was running the bases. Some little punk actually threw the ball and hit Carter when he was close to third base. Guess the other kid knew he couldn't catch the lighting fast #11 Carter Dodd.

Chasing AJ around prohibts Mark and I from totally focusing on the game. We sort of trade off wrangling the baby. AJ was not happy with us at the game today because we made him stick close to the field. Mark and I both got to see Carter fabulous hit & cheer like no tomorrow while he ran his little heart out! He was exhausted by the time he got back to the dug-out.

One of Carter's teammates took Carter's cap and threw it in the dirt before the game. I thought I was going to have to pummel the kid, but Grandma said I'd have to stand in line behind her. Carter almost cried, but he held his temper. Walked over to get his hat. Put the hat back on his head and went about his way without saying anything ugly to the other kid. Woot, woot Carter!

Carter says he got a first place trophy today after the game. Last week he got the game ball. He hid both the trophy & game ball in his bottom dresser drawer, because "AJ won't find them there." Carter thought he had to take the game ball back for the next game so another kid could have it.

Stay-cation resumed after the game and we headed out to "A Cowboy Town." We saw a comedy gun fight show, took a hay ride, ate some bad food, played on the slide and in the creek, played checkers, and petted horses. It was a fun trip to Whites Creek. Some of us needed a nap afterward.

 AJ goes to the saloon at Cowboy Town

 Our very bumpy hayride

Carter beats Daddy at checkers.

We spent tonight playing outside with a soccer ball. AJ tried to kiss the neighbors cat and both boys taunted the neighbors dog. Good thing our neighbors have nice animals!

AJ has some many cute words these days:
fun-dy = funny
hair-plane = airplane
copter = helicopter
dine-saur = dinosaur
ite-ite = night night
go-urt = yogurt
go, go, go
pill-o = pillow
bro-er = brother
Car-tar = Carter

His favorite things to eat this week are chips, yogurt and spaghetti. Mommy is tops on list right now, but that will change with the wind. I'll drop back down to number two or three when I go back to work. In fact AJ blew KC kisses when she left on Thursday...he sure doesn't blow me kisses when I leave.

AJ is also going to sleep in his own bed by himself. Something Carter is still working on. =-)

Vacation

Mark was sick of hearing me stay "stay-cation" by day two, so I changed to "we are on VACATION, fun, fun, fun!"

AJ spent the day with KC while Carter, Mark & I headed to Foggy Bottom Canoes. The three of us enjoying floating & paddling down two miles of the Harpeth River. 

Carter & I floated on inner tube for a bit. I was holding onto the back of the canoe with one arm. The other arm was locked in Carter's hand. Daddy paddled & pulled us along. Once I could smell the stinky smell of my life jacket I was ready to get back in the boat. 

We had a fun time & were famished by the time we got back to the canoe rental company. Since we were in the middle of no-where-ville (Kingston Springs) we had to drive back to Nashville before we had many food options. Meat & three's in the middle of no-where sort of scare me.

We were two hours late getting home. It is a good thing KC was very understanding and didn't charge us a late fee!

Stay-cation

I have some expected time off from work this week. We looked at several destinations, however our best option was to stay home & check out some local attractions. Wednesday morning I checked out the Groupon deals & we kicked off our stay-cation with a trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky.

 The Train Museum was a huge hit with the boys. There favorite part...the train table in the gift shop.

This was the first time we took the boys to a museum. I don't think we broke anything while we were there.

 The electic model railroad was super cool. It has lots of cool buttons for the boys to push.

 Thomas & Carter...friends for life.

 AJ admiring the model railway.

 Conquering Morse code.

Toot Toot. We made it through the first three cars of the train tour before lil bits was DONE. 

We also made a stop at the Corvette Museum, but didn't take the tour. We didn't want to put the envelope with the boys. Next we went swimming with Nana, Hope & Bryan for a few hours before heading home. 

Sunday Fun

 AJ loves Lightening McQueen, but he calls everything from the Cars movies "Mater." He was super happy when I found this hat. I was digging though Carter's old clothes to find some new pajamas for AJ & ran across this cap.

 Cheese!

 How did my little guy get SO big. I can't even think about him starting Kindergarten in a few weeks.

More mighty cucumbers. This one measured 17.5". Maybe it is the power lines above our garden. 

The only thing that is growing is cucumbers & a few watermelons.

OUCH...Boo Boo

It has been an accident prone weekend at the Dodd house! It started Saturday afternoon when AJ banged his head on the night stand in our bedroom. He nose was bloody at first. Now it is swollen and a little bruised.

Sunday we took the kids to a local shopping center to play in the fountains. Carter was running to get to the water first. He fell bloodied his knees, hands, and arm. We got home from the fountains and AJ fell on the steps. He busted his chin open.

Finally the kids were ready for bed. I was reading them a book and cut my thumb on the page. Mark says he is going to bed before he has an accident. Thank goodness for triple antibiotic ointment.

We went to Henry D.'s birthday party on Saturday morning. Carter banged his head on a bar on the playground. We had a fun time and it was great to see the kidos play together. Carter was very proud that he knocked the legs off the pinata! AJ loved the candy that came out of the pinata. I think he was eating 3 suckers at once.

Today Carter and I meet up with Ben and him mom for swimming. This was the first time I didn't get in the pool with Carter. Granted it was only 3' in the shallow end but I felt he was a good enough swimmer that he could splash around without me within arms reach. Carter was so very confident and even put his head under water several times.

I am glad to put an end to the boo boos & put this weekend in the books!

AJ has started saying "I DO!" when he wants to do something. AJ do you want a cookie...I DO! AJ do you want to go outside...I DO! AJ LOVES to go outside. He squeals with delight to get out the door and screams in terror when he has to come inside. At least the kid is passionate about everything!