Carson at 21 months

Carson has been so funny and has been learning so much the last month. I thought it would be a good time to write it all down before I forget most of it. ** Permission to skim or skip post if you are not a Grandparent**.

This is such a cool age! So many things are finally starting to “click” in his mind, it’s so fun to watch. Carson still isn’t a huge talker, but he understands so much! Like the other day I couldn’t find my phone so I asked him where it was. He took me by the fingers and led me right to it. (He had hidden it away in a place where I could have never found it). He is really good at pointing and repeating the names of various body parts (eyes, hair, mouth, ears, etc). He is starting to repeat words we say, but still only uses basic words without being prompted. When he wants to get out of the house and go somewhere, he’ll take you by the hand to the garage, open the car door, and climb into his car seat. Needless to say even if we don’t have anywhere to go we’ll go somewhere.

Carson continues to have little fear and is such a curious boy- a scary combination. His new thing is he is constantly climbing onto the bathroom counters. He loves to play in the sink and medicine cabinets, and loves to look at himself in the mirror. He’ll be in the middle of a bath and all the sudden I’ll turn to look at him and he’ll be up there, all soaped up, laughing at himself in the mirror. He also does this in the kitchen. He’ll take a chair and use it to climb onto the counters. He loves to go through all the cabinets. Our bottom cabinets are child locked, so I guess I’ll have to lock the top ones too.

He has discovered the joy of pens and markers. We all knew this day would come. I don’t think I need to go into much more detail about this one… One of the funniest things about Carson is his love for shoes. He ALWAYS likes to have shoes on and is very persistent that others do too. If we get home from something and I take my shoes off he will keep bringing me different shoes until I put them on. He loves to try on shoes at the store. I have to hide the shoes I don’t want him to wear like rain boots or he’ll freak out until he has them on. He is a T.V. kid, so we have to monitor that. His favorite is still probably the Wiggles, with Sesame Street a close second. He also likes Mickey Mouse Club House, Barney, and more recently Thomas the Tank Engine. We have a Wiggles CD that we listen to in the car and he gets so excited! He loves jumping around to their music.

Carson goes to his friend Derek’s house (Derek is 3) once a week and LOVES it there. Derek has 3 older brothers so there are lots of toys and fun things to do. Sometimes his brothers are there which is even better. He is such a cry baby when it comes to going to nursery or other places without Mom and Dad, but not the Olsen’s house. He never wants to leave. He loves Derek’s Mom too. He’ll see her at church and follow her around. It’s pretty funny. Second to the shoe fetish the other really funny thing about Carson is his love for minivans. I think it started because the Olsens have a minivan and he gets to ride in it sometimes. He loves minivans. If there are kids piling in or out of one he’ll run up to it and try to get in. At the park he has been able to climb into a stranger’s minivan and get in the back without the parent even noticing. This kid loves to play in cars and we do, frequently, for hours sometimes.

One frustrating thing is he is getting so aggressive. He tries to hug/tackle/pin down other kids a little smaller and a little bigger than him. I can tell that he isn’t doing it to be mean. I think he thinks that this is how we make friends, or that they are playing a game and the other kid is having fun too, which they usually are not. He is really big for his age too, which doesn’t help. I mean you should see this kid’s hands and feet! He’s got Samoan feet! So, we are working on being gentle right now. He loves little babies and thinks he is being gentle with them and he usually does a pretty good job. He thinks all babies should be held all the time and gets very angry at the grown-ups if a baby is upset and no one is doing anything.

There is a lot more I can add, but I should probably rap this one up at 863 words!