Karter is Three!

Karter turned three last weekend and it was a highly anticipated event  . . . .for Kylie! She wrote a sentence about it in her agenda at least 4 or 5 days out of the 9 school days in April.  Karter on the other hand was not quite as excited . . .  mostly because its been a while since we really celebrated a birthday here (mine and Jonathan's didn't amount to a whole lot of hoopla!) so I don't think he really understood what there was to be excited about.  He does get the concept of birthdays  . . . but it's always been someone else's birthday, so when we talk about birthdays, he would think of Mason or Oma, or Uncle David etc.  But Kylie did get him somewhat prepared so that when Saturday arrived, he did know that it was about him . . . though he still had no expectations (presents!) which was fun!

Jonathan had a hockey tournament all day Saturday, so that is where we hung out . . . which was a good thing by the way. We all love hockey and were excited about this day.

The only thing Karter really talked about regarding his birthday was a birthday cake. Since we don't love cake over here, I usually resort to ice cream or drumsticks or some other yummy treat we don't usually have.

But I wanted Karter to have cake, so off to Dairy Queen I went after the tournament and grabbed an ice cream cake .  . . that way we could all enjoy it!  The look on  his face when I brought it in (lit with his candles) was priceless. He was pretty excited about it!

Balloons are the other must for a birthday over here and he was pleased with them too.

The rest of these pictures are my favorites of Karter from anywhere between when he turned two and when he turned three.

Where to start with my descriptions of this boy?!! Joy.  All kids bring joy to their family but Karter does in a different way. He is appreciated and loved by every member of the family and his siblings are very rarely mad at him.  He can take a grump and make them smile.   He makes us laugh with his antics.  He is a big copycat and will do whatever his big brothers do . . . which is not always a good thing . . . but it often makes us laugh.

Karter loves his worker man dad.  He loves to help out in the shop and drive in the worker man truck and use a worker man lunch pail and wear a worker man hat and his worker man sweater. He loves it if Jonathan pops home in the day or when he arrives home at the end of the day.  He wishes he could go with him to work.

He is all boy and continues to be a bit of a danger to himself. He loves to jump from ridiculous heights.  He loves to climb and get into things he isn't necessarily supposed to be in.  If it is too quiet in the house it usually means one of three things . . . he is either getting himself into something he shouldn't be . . . he is helping himself to my pantry . . . or he has found his soother and tucked himself into bed.

He still LOVES his soother. He is only allowed to have it in bed, so we don't see it too often  . . . but sometimes it doesn't quite make it to its hiding place in the morning and he will find it if he has a sad moment in the day and he will put himself to bed and fall asleep . . .  or he will come downstairs after a while with his hand over his mouth, thinking I will not notice. I remember Kylie doing the same thing. Now that he is three I think Mr. Sooey needs to go . . .but I'm not overly anxious to enforce it. Bedtime is mostly a breeze b/c of our soother friend and I am not overly eager to give that up.  

In the picture above you will see a stuffed animal. It is a fat giraffe with no neck.  I know. Doesn't really make sense, but we love giraffe. We have a bit of a bedtime routine where we whisper in giraffe's ear and ask him where sooey is hiding. Then we listen and he tells us . . . .except Karter can never hear him . . so I have to listen and then tell Karter.  The main idea behind this is to give me time to extricate sooey from its hiding place while Karter talks to giraffe.  It works well and is our fun little bedtime routine.

Karter loves his smoothies.  We don't make them every day, but when we do, he is right in there helping put ingredients in and pushing the buttons on the blender.  He loves to help and he loves to drink them!

Karter has really started to talk and I think people can actually understand some of what he says now too.  It is very rare when I can not figure out what he is saying, but I'm not surprised when other people cannot figure him out sometimes.  He also has an adorable stutter that makes me laugh. He will start his sentence . . . for example "I'm going upstairs", except it will sound like, "Aaaaaaaa aaaaa  aaaaa  I goin' upstairs."  The first vowel is just very accentuated.  Sometimes it takes so long for him to spit something out, that I just burst out laughing. It's too funny. So far I haven't offended him by laughing.  He doesn't do it all the time, just every once in a while. Pretty funny.

Karter does have an issue with pronouncing the letter "K". You can only imagine.  Our children are as follows:  Tunin, Tade, Tylie, Tarter, and Tonya
Some of his "too big for his britches" sayings that make us laugh are:
"Seriously!" (said with an extreme look of annoyance)
"So annoying" (also said with a look of disgust)
"Promise you!"
"Telling Oma (or Opa) on you" (must have picked that one up when Konnor was born and he spent time with Opa and Oma.
"That's ridiculous"
"Why? Why?Why, mom?" "cause"
and sometimes a few all mixed together .  . .
"Why? Seriously, so annoying."

Karter has finally moved on from coming to join us in the middle of the night.  We kind of put an end to that when Konnor was born.  It only took him one night to change his ways. Amazing right? Well .. . great for us . . not so great for Kylie.  She's now the recipient of his snuggles . . . and he is a bed hog. I often go to wake Kylie up in the morning and find her half off the bed and Karter lying smack in the middle of her twin size bed.  Poor girl. The good news is that he seems to sleep through the night more often than ever, so she only has to put up with him 4 or 5 nights a week:)  This too shall pass.

Karter loves spending time with each of his siblings. He kind of has his things that he does with each of them.  We are grateful for their relationships and hope the older kids will always take time for the younger two.

Karter loves to read . . . the same books.  He loves Franklin, Mercer Mayer, Berenstein Bears and Little Bear. He also loves to watch those same movies . . . over and over . . .oh . .and Bob the Builder too!!  HE loves to be read to as well and I try to make time after I finish my coffee in the morning to read him a book or two . . . though I have been very bad at it since Konnor was born.

Karter loves to help. He loves to help me hang laundry, make supper, take out the compost, and empty the dishwasher.  As you can imagine he is not always helpful . . . but mostly it is okay for him to "help". He doesn't usually love being given a job  . . . like "clean up your toys". That is a hard one for him, but he can do it!  It's usually all in the wording:)

Karter loves his sports. He really took off skating this year and loved going to "hockey" every week over the winter. He also loves playing on his rollerblades down in the basement.  He loves anything with a ball and I'm sure that soccer will soon be the game to play.

Karter is scared of monsters. I thank his lovely siblings for that one.  It is actually really annoying b/c there are times where he refuses to let me out of his sight b/c the monster might get him! Thankfully the monsters are not ALWAYS on his mind and he does let me out of his sight occasionally.

When Karter is nervous or shy  . . . . or when an adult he doesn't know that well talks to him . . . he gets a goofy grin on his face and sticks his tongue out the side of his mouth.  Extremely nerdy:)

Karter has been sitting in church with us for about three or four months. It has gone really well and he has not been taken out yet for any reason.  I will not be surprised if this comes to an end soon though.  He has been getting way more fidgety and distracting lately.

Karter loves it outside . . . not as evident over the COLD winter, but now that it is spring, he is out a lot again.

Karter is finally, almost toilet trained! I would say he is completely, but I'm not sure if two 100% successful days in a row is considered toilet trained. We have talked about toilet training with Karter for months and tried a few different times with absolutely no results and what seemed like absolutely no concept of the idea.  But about three weeks ago he decided on his own that it was time and just went. So we've had some messes, but its been pretty painless!

Karter loves to "practice" his piano like the other kids.  Sometimes it sounds as beautiful as their practice time too .. . . which doesn't say a lot about their piano playing skills:)  

He also loves to sing. We got a Chris Rice hymns CD last summer and it is about the only CD that we listen to in the van. (He gets very mad and loud if we take it out and try to listen to something else.)  He LOVES it and has most of the songs memorized. His favorite is "How Great Thou Art" and "When Peace Like a River." He can really belt them out!

Here is a small piece of him from January. I shortened the video for you because he seriously went on for over three minutes with that same portion of the song:)
(you'll have to excuse the gum in his mouth!!)

Karter loves his friends and he has a bunch to choose from at church. He is the last of five boys born within 4 months.  They all have fun together and I'm sure the sunday school teachers can't wait for their arrival. His closest comrade is his cousin Mason. They were born exactly four weeks apart and are best friends!  They are trouble together but are VERY fun to watch  . . and we are learning that watching them is probably a very good thing to do.

We often shorten Karter's name to Kart.  I never thought too much of this till last week. Here I was leaving Costco and getting the man to sign my receipt. Karter was walking along side me as I pulled the cart. After the man drew the smiley face on my receipt and handed it back to Karter, I said, "Okay Kart, come!"  As I said it I had to laugh at the mental picture that the poor man might have had of me talking to my shopping cart.  It made me smile . . . even if he thought nothing of it:)

Karter thinks he needs to have a coffee every time I have one.  His coffee consists of watered down hot chocolate, but he seems to enjoy it and if I want to enjoy my coffee in peace, I will make sure he has his too!
Karter actually has really good manners. He is quick with his "please" and" thank you" and "your welome"s. He will also apologize with a "sorry".  (of course he also has his really stubborn moments when he is told to apologize or say please, and when he absolutely refuses).

Karter has finally learned to play and is even showing signs of imagination!  I hear him talking with his toys or to himself.  I don't mind the mess if he actually plays!  He enjoys puzzles once in a while but is not very good at them yet. His favorite toys are "Little People" and their accessories - especially the bus; farm; and cars.

Karter has adjusted well to Konnor. It really didn't take that long and he loves to hold him and is mostly safe.  I do have to watch him b/c he does think he is quite capable of carrying him around.

Karter is a pretty terrible eater.  It's not that he doesn't eat . . . it's what he eats!  He loves junk food and helps himself more often than he should. He rarely finishes his breakfast, lunch, or supper, though he is getting better! We were definitely stricter with the other kids, but if we force food into him, he gags and throws up.  So that doesn't work so well.  He is not suffering for lack of food .. . but I am a bit nervous about taking him to the dentist for the first time!

My dear Karter.  We love you incredibly much. You bring us so much joy and bring many smiles to our family.  There is never a dull moment with you around. I am thankful for each day that we get to spend together and am glad that school is still a long (not really!) way off.  We pray that God would bless you in this coming year and we pray that you would grow up loving the Lord with all your heart.  We love you little buddy!!!