Carson, in his own words

Selected quotes, lately:

"My hair is gross. I need a bath." [This one is recurrent. He loves baths and does not--gasp!--get one every day.]

"The goat had to die." [Explaining himself to the Mount Shasta Animal Hospital staff upon entering the building with a heart in a Ziploc. Which goat? "The sick goat."]

"Dada, STOP!!! Stop sitting on the couch! You should get up and play with me!" [He thinks he should be in charge of all activities.]

"I'm a hedgehog! Animals don't wear clothes!" [His response to my query of his preference for jeans or sweatpants that morning. This is an appeal to his book The Hat in which Hedgie the hedgehog finally escapes a sock he had got his head stuck in.]

"Right now I'm looking for the power, because Mom and Dad lost it, Hannah, so we can't have any lights on.... The power is out, so we need to get a new one." [Hunting, flashlight in hand, during his first experience of a power outage in the dark.]

"Please can I ask?" [Usually follows a conversation something like this... Bubba: "Carson, did you ask before you took that off Dad's desk?" Carson, hastily: "I'm gonna ask, Dad. Can I aaassk?"]

And one of our very favorites, that makes us melt rather than laugh: "I need a kiss and a hug!" before he will let either of us leave him... we love this boy.

with Mt McLoughlin, southern Oregon, on a trip this week with Dad

The fantastic twos

This week Carson is 28 months old. I thought he was a lot of fun at 18 months, but it keeps getting better! We’ve seen a lot of growth just in the last 6 weeks. Things we’re loving right now:

1) He suddenly learned how to entertain himself. In a matter of a week or two he went from needing mom or dad’s undivided attention at all times (at least when indoors) to playing for long stretches with legos, puzzles, or just in his own imagination… speaking of which…
2) Wow is that imagination soaring. He pretends he is one of the cats (“I’m soft and cuddly Hannah”) and curls up on my lap. When he puts on his fireman boots he imagines “flames leaping out of the windows” and has to find his hose to spray water on them. “Soon the fire was out, Mama.” He drives his car around “going shopping” and always says he’s buying donuts or chips (for the record, this does not reflect our typical purchases). But mostly he takes great and detailed care of his “bees”, which are bowling pins that resemble insects. He changes their diapers and takes them to the potty, feeds them, puts them to bed. The following videos are from a month ago, on the day the bee fascination began… still going strong.






Some additional little things that have surprised and entertained us of late: He correctly points out “the way to the clinic” and “the way to church” when driving. He contracts “I am not” to “I amn’t”. He greets me when I come home from work with “Hi gorgeous! Hi precious!” (The first is Bubba’s fault; the second we think he may have picked up from Grandma?) He knows which is his right hand (and foot, and eye etc) vs. his left. (He still appears to be left-handed). He recognizes 10 or so of his letters and picks them out in random places—for example seeing Bubba looking at Wikipedia from across the room and pointing, “That’s a dubbo-you!” (He also woke Bub up from a nap one day by whispering next to his head, “S like a snake…S like a snake…”)

I’ve taken amazingly few photos in the past month and need to catch up on a lot from the fall, so I’ll stick with just another video for today--another from the first of January:

Carson Live!

Well, not really. But here are some videos to commemorate our boy at two years old. These were all taken in September. Note that you can enlarge them by clicking the arrows at the lower right of each video.

"Hugging a Caterpillar"


"Bandaids"


"Drumming"


"In the Kitchen"

2 years

Here at last, a month overdue, we celebrate Carson's turning 2. If asked his age, he will still say "I'm gon' be two in October!", so maybe I'm not that far behind.

For his birthday he got to spend time with his favorite people--his grandmas, of course. And also grandpas :^) Our little tool junkie had a tool-themed birthday; I spent quite a few hours trying to make him a tool box cake, and this was the result:



Good thing he's only 2 and not picky! The tools were molded from chocolate. The cake was structurally unsound, as you can see, but I was just happy it wasn't pink--it took 2 whole bottles of food coloring to make it a very deep salmon. Not sure if this was the practice I needed in order to make something better next year, or the flop that will keep me from decorating a cake ever again.

Much better than cake in Carson's opinion were the huge tool set he got from Grandma and Pop-Pop, and the toy lawnmower and weed-whacker from Auntie Karry and Uncle Norm completely put this birthday over the top.



Carson is a dear sweet boy. He's tender with his parents, asking us for kisses and wanting to give us hugs. He plays well with other kids and talks about his friends frequently. He loves his cat Hannah (the only one of our three who will let him near) and always wants to give her treats, show her his toys or share his food with her. He loves to sing, dance and be tickled.







He does have well-developed bargaining skills already. If prohibited from eating or taking something, he'll assert he's due "just one, only one" (usually accompanied by shaking his finger "1"). If told to put something down, he may insist "I'm going to hold it for now." When issued any other command he'll often come up with a variation on it and declare that he'll do that.



In his 24th month the popular question "what's that?" somehow morphed into "what's that thing like?" and we were constantly replying, "um, that's like a [trailer, wrench, grape]. Well, it is a [trailer, wrench, grape]." But in the past couple of weeks Bub has started calling him "The Pope" because he pontificates--suddenly he's an expert on everything. "That's a weed-whacker. That one, right there, that one." Carson, this is a nail. "Actually, it's a screw."





He is just now starting to ask to do things himself--"Carson do it!" But generally what he most loves is to have the undivided attention of one or both parents and to do something "togebder" (and he always verbally notes that this is occurring. He keeps a running commentary on everything through his day). Well, really he'd prefer dad. He's obsessed with Dada and is miserable if dad leaves him behind even for a minute to run something out to the garage. He wants to do everything "like Dada does it!"





Dad and Mom both adore this boy and can't wait to see what he'll learn to do next!

Getting ready for winter

Helping Dad chop and haul wood:

Imagination

So, really, I plan to get a birthday post (or two) up soon, but meanwhile, just a couple quick things:

Carson received a US puzzle for his birthday (Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Mac!). Like his dad, he loves maps. And thanks to dad, he already knows six of his state capitals... really! So, today we played around with this puzzle a bit, for the first time. A short while in, this was the scene:



"Bang, bang! I have both guns!"

Let's take a closer look at one of those guns, shall we?



I told him the name of the state, and he noticed it sounded like "gun" and looked like a gun, all on his own, and went off hunting for the other gun. At least he hasn't started using every stick he finds as a firearm yet.

Secondly: Here are some of Carson's latest pals.



Their name is Elizabeth, apparently. Or more accurately, "Ewizabiff". Both of them. What sound do these fearsome creatures make, Carson? What do they say?

"Ongwaduwayshuns." Congratulations? Wow, what thoughtful and courteous monsters. (I still can't figure out where he picked up on this word!)

Elizabeth's favorite activity is to be "bounced" on the couch--Carson creates an earthquake by pounding the cushions. He likes mom to do it with him:

1300 miles

Here in Mount Shasta we don't lack for mountain scenery. And there's much more to be had within 3 or 4 hours' drive. Nevertheless, 1300 miles is the distance we covered (round trip) on our 4-night camping trip last month. Bubba loves a road trip above all else, so for his birthday I told him he could take one--5 days only, fit tightly between our work commitments. He had the destination picked almost immediately: Steens Mountain. Now, Steens is on his short list of places in the West that are gorgeous and little-traveled and that he has yet to see. And it's only 6 or 7 hours away, so it was perfect for a short trip.

Only problem: this was a record snow year. The week before our slated departure date in late July, Bub called to check on trail conditions at Steens. No go. He was disappointed but started checking into other options, only to have repeated conversations with Forest Service personnel along the same lines: No, you can't get up there yet. Any other year.... After inquiring as to just how many hours I could stand to drive in a day, he almost decided on the Wasatch above Salt Lake City, but then discovered it was to be the weekend of Pioneer Day, the biggest outdoor recreation holiday in Utah. Too crowded.

So, after much map-reading and more phone calls, he settled on the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. Neither of us had seen much of that state before, and we surely didn't do more than scratch the surface on this trip! But it was enough to give us a healthy respect for Idaho's beauty and huge areas of wilderness. Bubba is excited to think all that is only 11 or so hours away.

We left the boy in the care of his generous Grandma Suess, and I'm sure he had even more fun than we did. Meanwhile we snuck out early on Saturday morning and headed north to Bend. Bubba wanted to make the most of his road trip by covering different roads on the way there and back. So after hitting Costco and REI, we turned east....

Painted Hills, John Day NM. Terrible midday light...

...but still fantastic.

We spent the first night in the Strawberry Mountains, near John Day. We hope to come back for a longer stay so that we can do more hiking and see these larch trees turn golden:


Strawberry Lake. There are mountain goats up on that rock!


Varicolored penstemon


The Strawberries from Prairie City--the prettiest part of Eastern Oregon I've seen.

We arrived in Stanley, ID the following afternoon and were wowed. The Sawtooths were strongly considered for National Park status, and it's not hard to see why, with its jagged, precipitous granite rising above huge lakes:


Redfish Lake

We camped...


Minimalist (but free!) campsite right on the Salmon River. (Bub made that stove table.)

we hiked....







we picnicked...



We spent early mornings shivering and waiting for the light...




Mount McGown from Stanley Lake


The Northern Front




Can you tell I'm undecided when it comes to composition? Please help!
Which of the three above do you like best?


Stanley has a reputation as the coldest spot in the lower 48,
with winter lows reaching 40 below, and chilly summers too.
We were lucky it was just a little frosty.


It's my belief that cows improve every landscape. Unfortunately these were on the
wrong side of the road. They were unfazed by the chill.

Of course, I spent much of my photographic energy on the flowers:





It was a lovely time. Hope to see you again soon, Idaho!