Carter: 27 Months

Stats:

Weight: 27.4 pounds (25 months), 28 pounds (26 months), 29.2 pounds(27 months)

Length: 34.5 inches

Diaper: Size 4 disposables (Huggies brand--Little Movers) (25 & 26 Months), Highest rise, 3rd snap setting in our cloth (BumGenius/Pumpkinbums). As of 27 months, we will be moving him into size 5 diapers because the 4s are FINALLY getting too small. As soon as we run out, I'll buy 5s. He still has very little interest in potty training at this point so we are shooting for starting to really focus on it come spring.

Clothes: Mostly in 24 month & 2T stuff, finally! He does still fit into some 18 month & 18-24 month sized shirts & sweaters. We finally put all of his non-24 month & non-2T pants away because they were too short (26 months). As of 27 months he is more or less all in 24 months or 2T sized clothing. He does have a few pairs of pants that are still too big, but we will just wait to wear those. He is already outgrowing his size 24month & 2T sized footie pajamas.

Shoes: As of month 26, he finally moved into his size 7 shoes.

Milestones:

08/15-08/20: Second trip to Sunriver & last official family vacation before brother arrived. He had a great time playing, swimming & riding the little train there. He got to spend lots of quality time with Mimi & grandpa as well.

08/20 (24 .5 months): Bottom 2nd Molars came in. Ouch! No wonder he had been so whiny & bratty the days before.

08/24-08/26: Fever & illness. =(

09/2013: Started saying goodnight prayers. 

10/2013: First time having candy other then a lollipop.

10/15: Officially became a big brother! =)

10/16: First time meeting his baby brother.

10/31: Third Halloween holiday. First professional pictures with brother!

In Other News:

Sleep: Was bad while he was sick for that week, but is back to normal now. Staying up a bit later & waking usually between 8-8:30AM. Still napping once daily around 1-1:30PM for 2-3 hours. I try not to let him sleep past 3:30PM so that he will go to bed at night. Yeah, it works sometimes. lol (25 Months)

We are finally back on a REAL schedule. C has been going to bed at 8:30PM every night & waking up between 7-7:30AM every morning. He is still napping once daily usually around 1:30PM & we don't let him sleep past 3:30PM or else he doesn't go down by 8:30. We've only had one bad night all month due to an upset tummy, & otherwise C has slept great. I'm just glad to have him on a schedule since H will be here soon. (26 Months)

As of 27 months, he is sleeping pretty well despite all of us virtually being in the same room & with Momma having to get up with little brother multiple times a night. We start our bedtime routine around 7:30 (if it's bath night) or at about 8PM if it's not. We brush our teeth, read two books (with his blanket & doggie) in the rocking chair, say our prayers & sing 2 or 3 songs of his choice. He is usually down for the night in his crib by 8:30PM. He doesn't usually fall asleep while rocking at night anymore, but will generally put himself to sleep in his crib after a while. He is still napping once daily on most days going down between 12:30 & 1:30 depending on how tired he is & what our schedule for the day looks like. Most days he is up by 3 or 3:30PM on his own. I rarely let him sleep past 3:30PM or he won't go to bed at night.

Eating Habits: He was getting to be a bit more picky since we weren't cooking a lot of meals at home, but thankfully he is getting better & better about eating what I serve now that I am back in the kitchen more. (25 months)

Eating has improved, but he still has his moments. We've been cooking at home all month & he has at least been tasting most of the food now before rejecting it, which is the least I can ask for. Favorites this month include: fruit, peanut butter, & popcorn. (26 Months)

As of 27 months he is finally starting to finally branch out a bit from his usual foods. He loves fruit & will now eat bananas, pears, peaches, grapes & apples like they are candy. He also will now eat cheese again, thankfully! And I am going to start to introduce more meat back into his diet as far as lunchmeat is concerned. He is also finally eating larger amounts of food most days like a normal person. =) I never knew how the kid survived off of the nothing he ate most days. Favorites right now include:  Honeynut Cheerios, peaches/pears, oatmeal & all bread products. =) His eating skills are improving every day & he now uses his fork/spoon more often then not. He still isn't good about drinking from a regular cup...we're terrible parents, I know! *wink*

Activity/Play/Learning:

-Learned to open doors with knobs. (25.5 Months)
-Started saying prayers to Jesus nightly as part of our bedtime routine. I am teaching him "Now I lay me down to sleep."(25.5 Months)
-Can sing his entire ABC song & recognize all of the letters in the alphabet, count to 20 with no difficulties & sing Twinkle, Twinkle little star & Rock-a-bye baby perfectly. (26 Months)
-Has Jesus Loves Me memorized & This Little Light of mine. Has more then 10 stories memorized & can repeat them back to us at any given time. (26.5 Months)
-Has an unbelievable vocabulary at this point, my favorite word he knows: commotion! lol Speaks in full sentences all of the time & we can understand him about 98% percent of the time now. (27 Months)
-Loves to paint, but still isn't a huge fan of coloring. (27 Months)
-He now knows where his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, head, tongue, fingers, toes, feet, hands, cheeks, chin, forehead, knees & elbows are. (27 Months)
-He STILL does not recognize his colors on a regular basis. (27 Months)
-He knows heart, diamond, star, circle & triangle shapes. (27 Months)
-He learned his right from his left (27 Months)

Cuteness Overload:

Has gotten a lot better about telling us "I need help" instead of getting frustrated & screaming when he can't do something by himself. It has been such a blessing at reducing the amount of tantrums caused by this.

Will repeat "blah blah blah" if he hears someone else say it first & finds it very, very funny.

Loves to give him little brother kisses & says "awww...he's so cute!" all of the time. When Holden is crying Carter will try to comfort him by saying "it's okay, brother, it's okay."

Still loves to play hide & seek or as he calls it, "where's Carter?" He will hide behind something & then we have to act like we don't know where he went & say "where is Carter?" & then he will pop out or up & laugh his head off.

When reading now or watching something he will ask me often, "Is that silly?" because if it is he wants to make sure he laughs. He has a very cute, very fake laugh for these times.

He still does his fake "bad" cough at 27 months old. And he will literally say "Ah..bad cough, bad cough."

Loves to say his bedtime prayers & always yells "Amen!" quite loudly at the end of them. He is starting to memorize them at this point. (27 Months)

Has such an amazing imagination & is playing by himself more & more. Loves to reenact & make-up his own Thomas the train adventures with his little toy trains & track. He is quite cute to listen to.

Loves to build tunnels & towers with his blocks & can stack them quite high at this point without causing them to crash down.

Loves to pretend "drive the car."

When I ask him where his elbows are he kisses them.

Loves to give his uncle Tyler fist bumps & say "Boom!" 

Favorites:

Books: Thomas, Percy & the Squeak; I'm Sorry Book; Color Book; Lion Color
Book (25 Months) Thomas & the Ghost Engine, Where is Baby's Pumpkin?, & Five Little Monkeys (26 Months) Mr. Messy, Little Miss Trouble & Thomas & the Ghost Engine (27 Months)

Movies: Blue Mountain Mystery--Thomas movie (25 Months) Little Engine that Could (26 Months) Lorax & King of the Rails--Thomas movie (27 Months)

Shows: Thomas; Super Why, Little Tikes, Angry Birds Toons (25.5 Months) Curious George (26 Months) Mater's Tall tales, Doc McStuffins, Thomas & Angry Birds Toons (27 Months)

Songs: Thomas theme song, Lullaby from the Sprout channel, & Jesus loves me (25 Months) Rock-a-bye Baby, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (26 Months) This Little Light of Mine, Rock-a-bye Baby, The Angelina Ballerina theme song (?) (27 Months)

Foods: melon, Smartpop popcorn (25 Months) carrots, pears, Honeynut Cheerios, bagels (26 Months) peaches, pears, oatmeal, Honeynut Cheerios (27 Months)

Toys: All his talking Thomas & friends engines, toy vacuum, stuffed beanie baby dogs (25 Months) Rusty Rails (Playschool train) & track, Balls (Any--Golf, Baseball, Bouncy), Brother's baby toys (26 Months) Toy shopping cart, ALL of his trains, Matchbox cars (27 Months)

Non-Toys: Vacuum cleaner, plugs (any & all), Grandpa's (Pack-ah) kindle (25 Months) Vacuum cleaner, Keys, & Mommy's phone (26 Months)Vacuum cleaner, keys, Grandpa's kindle (27 Months)