Carson and Annalea

Happy Almost New Year!!! And Happy Almost Birthday to Trisha!

We returned late Friday night from a wonderful visit with Granddad and Sittie and the North Carolina Hurt-Rahn clan. It was our first visit with the entire family since Christi and family moved this past summer, which made the visit all the more special.

Carson thoroughly enjoyed the reunion with his two cousins. Calder and Carson are almost exactly one year apart in age, so a little conflict between the two at times was expected. Lets say they developed a love/hate relationship, they both loved each other very much until the other one took one of the toys away...then the temporary 'hate' kicked in. This is a pattern that will repeat itself over the next few years I suspect. Clearly the two older cousins impressed Carson with all of their big boy skills. Calder definitely intrigued Carson, but Griffin became his leader. Carson just locked his eyes on Griffin and followed him around for days on end. Griffin really is a great guy with a youngster like Carson, we were thrilled to see them all hanging out.

Uncle Bob, Virginia, Emma, and Louisa all came up from DC for a visit on the Sunday before Xmas. It was great to see them and for Carson to meet Virginia, Emma, and Lousia for the first time. We look forward to seeing them again in April.

One of my greatest fears about parenthood has always been flying with a young child. I never wanted to be that couple that had the terror child on the plane. On the way east, Carson was a champ. He slept the first and last 30-45 minutes of the trip and then was easily entertained in between. On the way back, we left Philly about an hour late (we left at 7PM east coast time) and then had to make it through a 5 1/2 hour flight. Carson was super energized for the first two hours of the flight. He kept playing the parent switching game and bouncing back and forth between us. Finally, right after Trish said to get out the movie because he was never going to sleep, he zonked out. Now this was a positive development, but since Carson is still a lap child and we did not buy him a seat, we realized how truly large this chunky guy is. He sprawled right out on my lap with his feet hanging out into the aisle and even invaded Trish's space in the middle. Carson was comfortable at least as he slept the rest of the flight away. With about an hour left in the flight, she turned to me and said, "We are buying his a seat next time." Well, at least he did not cry and scream. All in all, he has done really well on two cross country flights now.

We were sad to leave the east coast folks, but took heart in the fact that we will see them shortly in April to celebrate Granddad's birthday. Make sure that you check out the new pics in the flickr account. I finally updated some of them.

We're Still Here....

This must be the longest break between any of my blog entries, so if you utilize the blog for proof of our continued existence, I apologize.....we are still here!! I will admit this though, the whole juggling two working parents and a 14 month old turns out to be quite the task. Last year, Trish returned to work with about four and a half months to go in the school year and we just focused on the light at the end of the tunnel with the impending summer vacation. However this year, there is no such tunnel...at least not yet. So Trish and I are figuring it out day by day and making it work. We do thank the family and friends that have been able to pitch in and help us get by during the past few months.

Well enough of that! Carson is changing with every passing day. I don't really know where to start with that sweet little guy. He has started to sprout back up again and now finds himself back at the 75th percentile in height and 90th percentile in weight, so he is still a good sized kid. In fact our doctor rubbed his belly last week and told him that he could eat a little less, but it's not anything of real issue. Speaking of the doctor, we have visited him a good bit recently between Carson's bouts with bronchiolitis, pneumonia, and various rashes. None of his medical issues have been a serious concern, but have caused us to be quite flexible. Carson moved up a room at the daycare about two weeks ago. He moved from the pink to the orange room, which is reserved for kids between 12 and 18 months. His transition has gone quite well with the only bump in the road being the adjustment to living a one nap a day lifestyle. Other than that, he was clearly ready for the change of scenery. We really knew that he needed to leave the infant room when he started sitting on the babies that could not move ..not a good thing. Carson moves about our home at warp speed. If he is not eating or sleeping, he is moving. However, he has now mastered the art of sitting in his little green frog chair, just not for that long a period of time. Watching him sit down in the chair is similar to watching an eighteen wheeler back its rig to a loading dock, he just has blind faith that as he backs up the chair will magically be there. One day he will learn that it helps to turn your head around before you sit down. He waves hi and bye to just about anyone, anytime and even seems to be suggesting that you leave from time to time. In the next month or so, Carson will master taking a stair step with his feet instead of crawling up them (he is trying this now), continue to practice scribbling away, and refine the use of his eating utensils (check out the video below to see his early attempts).

Anyway, that's a snapshot into our world these days. Will try and post again soon!