Muscle Man

It is April 30th.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jason!! I am now married to a much, much older man of 31 years. :)

As of Jason's Target trip last week, Carson is now the proud owner of a few muscle shirts.

You heard it here first. He is now going around Las Vegas sporting his guns all over the place!

We are having a great time with Grandma Barbie visiting us this week. Papa Dave comes on Friday night to hang out with the Stinky Fish for the big "1".

Some other Carson news....He took a step today!! It was a "falling towards the couch" step, but a step! Up to this point, Carson has shown minimal interest in walking. He crawls so well that he doesn't want to waste his time with anything slower than his super fast crawl. He stands really well on his own, but it is always like his feet are glued to the ground. But today, he took that one step...that I'm sure will lead to many, many more. And on his daddy's birthday, nonetheless!

Here are some pictures of us goofing around last night....Carson was dancing to his favorite song..."Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas, wearing his muscle shirt and his Mickey Mouse ears. And yes, that is a Christmas bear in the background. What could be better?

Check out this bod....

Muscle Man...

Carson loves the Noggin channel. His favorite shows are "Wow Wow Wubzy", "Backyardigans", and "Wonder Pets". Here he lays back with Dad and catches some of his show....



Carson with GB at Seredipity 3 in Las Vegas..... This is a major hot spot and everyone who visits LV should go there. It is at Caesar's Palace and is a replica of the famous restaurant in New York. It was here that Carson killed sweet potato fries and turkey with brie while myself, Barb, and Auntie Deana downed the famous frozen hot chocolate....all the while he flirted with a table of elderly ladies lunching near us.

Carson turns one on Saturday....look out world!

Waterlogged

This is me, one year ago today.

Stuck in the hospital, on the monitors 24/7, dragging my IV to the bathroom every 5 minutes...

All with excitement and anticipation for the arrival of our sweet baby boy.

One year later......

The thermometer in Vegas read 90 degrees this week, and this meant POOL TIME for Carson.

We discovered that not only does he love the pool, he doesn't care what temperature the water is. The first time I put him in, the water was completely freezing and he didn't care a bit. Here are some pictures from Friday, when Jason took a hard-earned day off of work to play with us.

One more week until Carson turns the Big "1"!!

And....in one year....Carson shows us what he can do......

If anyone sees a baby wandering around Wailings Avenue, this is why!

Time to go back to Babies R Us for babyproofed doorknobs!

A Desert Gymcat

Yesterday I took Carson to his first baby gymnastics class at a local gym. They have a free baby class there three days per week. I think we will go regularly because Carson thought it was super sweet. There was a push toy at the gym and all he wanted to do was push it around the mat. Of course he goes to the toy we have at home and wants to play with it the whole time, despite there being countless crazy mats and rolly polly objects for him to play with. The push toy is the "it" thing right now because all he wants to do is walk!

Gymnastics was a big hit. Carson was WAY taller than all the other kids in the class....so I don't know how far we will get to go in the gymnastics realm. We did do some forward and backward rolls and Carson showed promise while hanging on the bar.....so we shall see!

Fun, fun, and more fun

Oh my gosh....we had so much fun in Chicago. Here are just a few pics of all the fun we had during our 12 day stay......

Carson plays the piano before Easter mass.

Being silly with Uncle Mike....

Carson tore up Grandma Caryn's house like nobody's business!

Auntie Annon spent the night one night and even woke up at 6 AM with the little somebody who cockadoodledoo's at that time every day.

We checked out the Easter bunny at Orland Square. He was totally into the EB.
Way more so than Santa.

Carson had Lou Malnati's pizza and some park time with his Naperville cousins, Chase, Will, Bennett, and brand new baby Jillian. Awesome!

Going on the swings with cousin Chase....

Stealing kisses from daddy on the lawn at Grandma's house where he waved to all the cars going by.

Big smiles on Parkside Drive....

All in all......the trip was such a blast. We got to visit with many good friends and family members and we enjoyed every minute. Carson far exceeded our expectations on both airplane rides...he totally rocks as a traveler and so he will be jet-setting around the country more often.

We had a little party for him for the family on the 18th and it was so fun for him to see everybody. Thanks to everyone that was there. I don't have too many pictures from the big event but I will try to get some emailed to me so I can post some up. Carson enjoyed his cake and all the hoopla....he's a partier, for sure.

Now we are back in Las Vegas, enjoying being back to our regular routine. It's summer here and the pool is warming up as we speak......it is time for Carson to get his swim on!

Chicago!

Carson and I have been in Chicago since last Tuesday. We are having such a great time seeing all the family we miss all the time. We also miss Jason because he's still in Las Vegas until Wednesday, when he jet sets to Chicago to be with us. On the schedule this week...playtime with Grandpa Dennis today, lunch with friends Beth and Will tomorrow, and the arrival of Daddy on Wednesday...Thursday we are meeting up with the Naperville Smith fam to meet brand new baby Jillian Ritchie and to see Carson's other cousins....all of this leading up to Carson's little party on Saturday for an early first birthday. It's a busy, fun week and Carson is loving every minute of it. We will post pictures when we get back to Vegas on the 19th!

Swinging!

After we pushed our stroller around the park for awhile, I got Carson on the swings.

He was diggin' it!

Today we are having a great day because Grandma Caryn is here visiting us. How fun! We are going to brunch and then we are going to get outside this afternoon and enjoy the beautiful weather. GC and myself are bringing Carson to Chicago on Tuesday on the big airplane. Should be a wild ride!

At the park....

Las Vegas has beautiful parks. See below.

But we went to the park this past week....and this is what Carson wanted to do.

Apparently pushing your own stroller around the park

provides one with hours of excellent entertainment!