Sleepless Nights

*helping* with the laundry (this was under Chad's supervision)

putting on a piano concert

enjoying his toys

he said he was writing daddy an email

almost ready to do this on his own

I have several posts to do so I thought I would just start with a general update on Carter and then I will do a 15 month post on Camden and a little something on the baby. Carter has been interesting lately. He has done a lot of changing for sure. First of all he has become somewhat fearless. He LOVES being outside and loves that he can accomplish anything on the swing set this year. He can climb up the slide and slide down every which way. He can get up the rock wall without supervision and he can get on the glider and swing with no help. This new found freedom has lead to some daredevil behavior. He now really enjoys jumping off of anything and saying "watch me" or "look everybody." I love that he can play in the backyard without help and the new sand box has led to even more enjoyment out there. He has started a habit we have been hoping for which is waking up after nap and getting up to find us instead of peeing in bed. This was a new and sudden development this week. Hopefully it continues. The new "yucky" behavior is that he is doing weird stuff in his sleep. He is talking, walking, and crying out A LOT! We often find him on the wood floor in the hall sleeping on his puppy. A lot of the time he wakes up and cries or makes noise out there which warrants one of us to get up and take him back to bed. Needless to say we have been getting up several times a night to deal with these shenanigans. I talked with our Pedi and he thinks that he is sleep walking and having night terrors so we can only pray that it goes away. It seems like the more tired he is the worse it is. He is also sleeping less hours and this does not make a mom very happy. He still goes to bed at 7:30 but usually talks/plays till 8 or even 9 some nights. His new wake up call is 6:30am! To top it all off his nap only last about an hour, but we make him have quiet time for 2. Anyway we are happy that he is getting up to tell us that he has to go to the bathroom (except the middle of the night) and this is a positive step but I think it has lead to weird and less sleep.
He is being super sweet and funny lately. He unprompted will tell me "thank you" for dinner and tell me that it is "tasty." Which funny enough seem to happen on the nights where he is not particularly fond of the meal. Then last night after telling me thank you for dinner he told Chad thank you for making money. It was super funny. He now realizes when I raise my voice/yell that it is appropriate for him to say he is sorry. He then proceeds to tell me that he wants me to be happy. He also told me to *relax* the other day when I got mad at him for making a mess at the dinner table. Also his default answer when asked why he was put in time out he answers "Camden?" (because he usually goes for hitting, pushing, kicking, taking toys from Camden) We also went to a fun night at Carter's future preschool which has made him really excited about going. He talks about it a lot but is going to be severely disappointed when preschool doesn't have bounce houses and games all day.
Carter also has become a decent helper and will get things for us if he knows exactly where they are. He will bring me the phone or Kleenexes and even his socks and shoes. He is getting better and better at picking up toys and even picks them up at a faster speed than a snail. He is growing up so fast lately. I love being able to talk to him and listen to his stories. He is soaking in so much of the world around him. Love that boy!