A Big Boy "do"

Yesterday Jadon, Cole and I took Carter for his second haircut. He had his first haircut a couple months ago, but I just had them take a tiny bit off to make him look reasonable. He still totally had a baby look. This time, I decided to go for it and told her to go short. This is a major deal for me because I really feel like the first haircut is a right of passage and an exiting from babyhood. Jadon and Cole didn't have their first haircuts until just before their first birthday, but Carter just has so much hair. I had no choice!

These are the before shots. I brushed his hair down (on the left) and couldn't believe what a bowl shape he had. The above picture is just with all his hair brushed to the side, but still pre-cut.

I had Jadon and Cole take pictures of the process. Here is Carter in the middle of the cut.

And finally, the finished product. She even gelled it for him. We got a lot of comments on our trip to Costco following the haircut. It is REALLY short. Too short I think. Next time I will have her leave it a little longer.

So it is done. He is officially a "big boy." Now...if only I could talk Arnie into a #4!

Food

Carter had a fun day today eating. He tried (for the fifth time) and sort of liked cottage cheese...at least for a minute. I bamboozled him by serving it to myself and then sitting on the floor to eat it. Of course that got his attention. He tried it and made a horrible face, but then opened his mouth for more. I got several bites of it down him before I had finished it. Here are a couple shots of him trying it last week.

This was his initial panic and disgust.

Then he tried to cover his mouth so we couldn't put anymore in.

Finally, when he uncovered his mouth I stuck another bite in with the above result. After that, we gave we gave up.

Today Carter ate an entire fresh pear for lunch and then had yogurt. It is so fun giving him all this "real" food. It is also much less expensive than all the baby food purees. Yay! Today, Carter managed to get pear and yogurt all over himself because he kept trying to play peek-a-boo while he was eating.

Turtles and Whales and...

...Sharks! When we told Jadon and Cole that we were going to Hawaii for a few days they were thrilled to have some alone time with grandma. As the trip got closer, Jadon began to have some second thoughts about us leaving and thought perhaps he'd like to come along. The week before we left, Arnie had just returned from a business trip in Kona. He told the boys all about the sharks (charks according to Jadon and Cole) that were in his hotel pond. After that, Jadon and Cole had no interest in coming with us to Hawaii. They wanted nothing to do with "charks" in the hotel. I tried to explain that the sharks were just in a pond and could not hurt them. They weren't actually in the hotel or the ocean where people swam (not to mention we weren't even going to that hotel or that island). So, imagine my surprise yesterday as I was sitting on the balcony of our 28th floor hotel room enjoying watching the sea turtles that live right off the shore and looking for the whales further out that we had seen spouting the night before, when suddenly I see a very large fish swimming toward the shore. Now, I am on the 28th floor. I can't see fish all the way down there...can I? My first inclination was to assume it was a shark, but the seemed highly unlikely. Then I started hearing other people who were also on their balconies start to shout about the shark. Sure enough...it was a shark...on Waikiki beach...not 30 feet from children playing in the water. I watched as it maneuvered around the reef and within 20 feet of the shore before casually turning and heading back out to sea avoiding the surfers and snorkelers who seemed to dot the endless expanse of water. Hmm...maybe Jadon has a point. I am not in any hurry to get in the water now!

Through a Child's Eyes

"They" always say that kids are so great because you can see the world again through a child's eyes. This is true, and I have experienced it in countless ways since we've had the boys, but none so poignant as the other day. We were in the valley going to the optical place because Cole had fallen the day before at school and destroyed the lenses of his glasses. He was fine, but the lenses had huge divots in them and we will have to replace them. As we exited the freeway in Woodland Hills, Cole looked out the window and saw the still above ground power lines. The next thing I know, he is asking when he and Jadon can have a turn up there. Me, driving the car, had no idea what he was talking about. So in asking for clarification he pointed "up there"...to the top of the power lines. What a great way to see the world...as one big playground!