TWO!

*This is a really long post with lots of words, but if you're a mother with a baby that will ever have to be put in a big bed, you may want to read it. Also, there are pictures at the bottom*

Yesterday Carter turned two and it was quite an emotional roller coaster for me. I was super excited, of course, but then I was also nervous and a little sad. I guess him turning two was like the realization that he's not a baby anymore, and next month we're going to have another babyand he REALLY won't be a baby anymore. So that's why I was sad, and I was nervous because we went and bought him a new bed (thanks Nana and Paw-paw and grandma and grandpa for the donation).

Here is the story:

He absolutely loved setting it up with us. It was so fun and exciting....and then night time came. We had heard lots of different things to try to make the adjustment easier of the child. The first one we tried was laying in bed with them and reading a few books and singing songs to help them fall asleep. This was terrible. Carter was SO awake and was mostly just excited that mom and dad were in bed with him.

After probably a half hour of that, we tried leaving him in there by himself. Since he knows how to open the door, we decided we'd lock it and then unlock it when we went to bed. He cried and cried and cried...he got out of bed, we heard him by the door, he tried opening it. My heart was crying as I heard him screaming out for me...and then the unthinkable happened...he managed to unlock the door. When we heard it clicked, me and Mark just looked at each other in disbelief and started laughing. We couldn't believe it. I went back to his room and found that he had also turned his light on (we didn't know he was tall enough to reach it, surprise!)

So, we decided we had to try something else. I turned his light off, put him in his bed, and made him stay there as I sat at the foot of his bed making sure he did not get off. He was SO upset!! I have never seen him scream so loud or cry so much. It broke my heart. Because I had said many prayers asking Heavenly Father to help me be patient with this process and know how I could best help Carter in this transition, I was able to stay calm and collected while he screamed. (It truly was a miracle, even Mark said it sounded like he was possessed by the devil.) I asked him if he wanted me to lay down by him, he screamed no. I asked if he wanted to read a book, he screamed no. So I just gave up on helping him and let him cry until the most hurtful words came out of his mouth, "GO MOMMY!!" He really was so upset, he just wanted me to leave. I said, "you want me to leave?" "YES!" he screamed. So I walked out of the room and stood by the door for a minute to make sure he didn't try to leave. He continued to cry until he fell asleep. It was so sad. I felt terrible. I went back in his room about a half hour later to make sure he was still on his bed and he really was asleep and he was! I guess he was just too upset to get down.

He slept great through the night and didn't wake up until 9 this morning. I heard him open his

door and he walked into my bathroom to find me, he seemed a little worried that he would get in trouble for being out of his bed, but I welcomed him with open arms and he was very happy to see me. I guess we're lucky that children are so forgiving, right?

All morning I was dreading nap time, but let me tell you, it was the complete opposite of last night. Everything went perfectly! One o'clock rolled around so I went in his room, shut his blinds, and pulled down the sheets. He eventually came in to see what I was doing and immediately started crying...he ain't no dummy. But I picked him up and set him in his bed, just like I would do when putting him in his crib, said goodnight, I love you and walked out. He screamed for me a few times, cried for maybe a minute and then I didn't hear from him again!

After the nap time experience, I decided that we'll just put him down the same way we did everything when he was in the crib. It makes the most sense to me to keep everything as close to the same as possible so they're not getting all confused and bombarded with new things that it scares them and stresses them out more than necessary. We'll see how it goes though.

Ok, on to the fun stuff!

Saturday we had a party for Carter. My whole family was there and so was Marks sister, Jen, and her family. It was just a small party with cake and ice cream and then opening presents. The cake I made looked terrible. It was suppose to be blue with red writing, but when I mixed the red food coloring with the white frosting, it turned pink, duh! So his cake was pink and blue and boy did I get made fun of for that....I also spelled birthday wrong...who needs the "H" anyway right? So yes, I got made fun of even more for that. Boy does my family love me. haha Anyway, here are some pictures and I saved the video for last because it truly is the best.

As you can see, he loved opening the presents but he wasn't a fan of the cake and singing.

Since we put Carters big boy bed up, I was able to do this:

Love!

And only 7 more weeks!